‘3 Musketeers’ Are Fixtures at Armory

* Joe Weeks, 69

Occupation: Retired industrial engineer

* Bill Spehn, 74

Occupation: Retired Marine

* Larry Keith, 54

Occupation: Volunteer ministries

Organization: Winter Armory Shelter Program, Orange County Department of Social Services

Address: 1055 N. Main St., Santa Ana, Calif. 92701. (714) 568-4611

They are known as “The Three Musketeers” to the homeless people who have found shelter at the Fullerton National Guard Armory during wintry nights in the past.

In the evenings they are the first to arrive, setting up cots and preparing the kitchen equipment that will provide hundreds of hot meals. In the mornings, they provide the wake-up call and have the task of returning the temporary shelter to its original function as a National Guard training facility.

Joe Weeks, Bill Spehn and Larry Keith have come to lend what Weeks calls a “certain continuity” to operations of the Winter Armory Shelter Program, a county program that begins each December and ends in March, providing food and shelter when the weather turns harsh. Shelter officials say their volunteer efforts have come to be indispensable.

Their work at the armory is among many charitable efforts that Weeks, Spehn and Keith are involved in through their individual churches. But they admit they are viewed as permanent fixtures of the 4-year-old shelter program, which is based in Santa Ana.

“We’ve grown into a nice community of people here,” said the 69-year-old Weeks, gesturing toward the vast armory, empty at the moment of the 150 people who occupy the space on a typical shelter night.

Spehn, 74, and Weeks, both Anaheim residents, got to know one another while working for the poor at the St. Vincent de Paul Society. They both became involved with the Anaheim Human Service Network, where they learned about the shelter program during its first year of operation.

About a year later, Keith, 54, also an Anaheim resident, visited the shelter with a church group that was serving food. The 6-foot-4 Keith speculates it may have been his height, but for whatever reason he was chosen out of the crowd to help set things up. Weeks and Spehn, who had come to be known to their homeless friends as “Mutt and Jeff,” had found their third musketeer.

The three comrades-in-arms could not be further apart in personality. Keith, who left his job as an engineer when the firm he worked for relocated to Texas, says he is much more apt to focus on the spiritual and personal needs of shelter occupants.

Weeks, a reflective retired industrial engineer, acts as the overall coordinator of operations, which includes scheduling bus pickups. Spehn, a former Marine Corps drill sergeant, says he commands the attention of shelter occupants when there is any sort of disruption to handle, but he also admits to being the comedian and main kidder in the group.

What all three share is a profound desire to fill a need in their community.

“I don’t think the armory program is the solution to homelessness in the community, but I think it is a necessary, temporary shelter for people who don’t want to be homeless,” Keith said.

Added Spehn: “What keeps me coming back is I have a compassion for people. I try not to judge them. It doesn’t matter if they’re dirty or clean, they’re all human beings,” he said.