Homeless for a decade, Donald Ash knows how to survive the coldest days of winter.

The 46-year-old said he finds a dry spot where he can lay his head for more than two hours � outside the post office, behind the bus station or inside parking garages. When he falls asleep on the streets, Ash said, he never knows who might awaken him � the police asking him to move along, a middle-aged housewife offering him a sandwich or someone kicking him while walking home from the bars.

Standing outside Fairview United Methodist Church on Wednesday evening, Ash said he would be able to sleep in peace that night. He waited outside the church before 5 p.m., two hours before Room at the Inn, the local winter shelter, welcomes guests. Ash wanted a cot.

�This is a place where you can actually come lay your head, grab a meal real quick, and you wake up in the morning and you know where you�re at,� he said. �You know you�re safe, and you know you don�t have to worry about it.�

Room at the Inn, which changes locations throughout winter, relies on volunteers to help run the operation from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. There are eight paid staff positions: Executive Director Jim Jantz, four managers and three intake coordinators.

Room at the Inn does not take off for the holiday. The organization will be open for 24 hours on Christmas Day and New Year�s Day when warm-up locations are closed.

But there is a volunteer shortage. As of Wednesday, six volunteers were needed for Christmas Eve and another six volunteers for Monday, Jantz said. A mass email was sent to regular volunteers asking for help, and Jantz said he was optimistic more people would sign up, which can be done at roomattheinncomo.org.

�We will keep the shelter open,� he said. �There�s always someone who steps forward at the last moment.�

This season, 500-600 volunteers are expected to set up cots, make sandwiches and supervise throughout the night, said Yvonne Chamberlain, an on-site manager and transitions coordinator for Room at the Inn. Last year, 496 signed up to volunteer online and another 100 showed up on site after hearing about a need for more volunteers through Facebook or word of mouth, she said.

This is the second season that Room at the Inn is open for Christmas. The shelter opened Dec. 4 and will run through Feb. 28, but before last year, Room at the Inn did not operate until New Year�s Day. The Unitarian Universalist Church on Shepard Boulevard had approached Room at the Inn about starting earlier in the season and offered the space to make it possible.

Jantz started out as a volunteer with Room at the Inn in 2009. After two years of volunteering, he started going to planning meetings, which, he joked, was �very dangerous.�

�I�m glad I have been� involved, Jantz said. �I wanted to be roped into it.�

At Room at the Inn, the first batch of volunteers is the setup crew. They come in at about 5:30 p.m. to assemble cots and make coffee and sandwiches. The evening shifts start at 6:30 p.m., with the short shift lasting until 9:30 p.m. and the long shift going until 11:30 p.m. Evening hosts check in guests, mingle with them and play cards or board games.

The overnight shift, which is the hardest to find volunteers for, runs from 11:15 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and involves assisting guests with any needs throughout the night. The morning crew arrives at 5:15 a.m. to make a cold breakfast, which can include cereal and boiled eggs. The cleanup crew comes in last to clean bathrooms and floors. Laundry volunteers take bedding to a laundromat.

Jeanie Pearson, 67, was one of four volunteers making ham and cheese sandwiches inside the church kitchen Wednesday evening. Pearson, who is in her third year of volunteering at the shelter and came with her husband, Steve, said Room at the Inn is a �worthwhile mission.�

�It�s a humanity thing,� she said.