For Jarin Dunfee, the Drop in Tampa is more than a place to shower and do laundry. It is a place that made him feel human again, and a new life-saving donation is making it safer for everyone who walks through its doors.Dunfee h as been coming to the Drop, a hygiene and resource center serving people experiencing homelessness, for about three months. He said he learned about it from other community members and kept coming back because of something he did not expect to find."The compassion here is like no other," Dunfee said. "It's even changed the way I see people reacting with each other. They start to treat each other with kindness and compassion, and this is a lot of our safe place here at the Drop."WATCH: AdventHealth and Pepin Foundation donate AED to Tampa homeless center where one man found hope and purpose AdventHealth and Pepin Foundation donate AED to Tampa homeless centerDunfee said the Drop stands apart from every other resource he has encountered."There's places you can eat. There's places that will set up mobile showers. There's places that might do something else, but none of them do it all," Dunfee said. "This place has everything, and on top of that, people that ask you how you're doing and actually care."That sense of belonging inspired Dunfee to start volunteering at the Drop over the past three weeks, helping coordinate access to showers for other community members, compiling lists, ensuring people are seen in a fair order, and ensuring everyone has clean towels and supplies."I've actually been looking for somewhere I could do some service because that's the next step in my spiritual path," Dunfee said. "This was the first place that I saw, this is worth investing time in."He said the feeling of being welcomed is contagious."It's the difference between feeling like a human being and feeling like someone forgotten," Dunfee said. "You get that feeling, and it's contagious, and you want to spread it." Dunfee moved to Tampa from Pasco County about six years ago looking for a fresh start. He said some health conditions make stable work difficult at times, but the Drop has helped him keep moving forward. He uses the center's Wi-Fi to take online classes and relies on the showers and laundry to stay presentable."If you're someone who's trying to get out of this situation, you don't want to be here anymore, you want to lift yourself up and start a next chapter in your life, who's going to hire you to come to your job interview smelling and not have no clean clothes on," Dunfee said. "This allows people to get those things they need to maybe better their lives too."He said the Drop has become a true home away from home."A lot of time I don't even want to leave," Dunfee said.Now, the Drop is also safer. AdventHealth Tampa's Pepin Heart Institute and the Pepin Family Foundation donated an automated external defibrillator to the center, bringing life-saving equipment to a community at disproportionate risk of cardiovascular emergencies.April McCullus, Director of Community Resiliency with Well Built Cities, the organization that operates the Drop, said people experiencing homelessness face elevated rates of chronic illness and significant barriers to healthcare."Having an AED machine on site provides an additional layer of security of safety for everyone because we know that medical emergencies can happen anywhere," McCullus said.McCullus said the value of the training that came with the donation became clear to her personally in recent weeks."A few weeks ago, I had to call 911 because a friend of ours was in and out of consciousness, and I had just received my AED training with Damar," McCullus said. "Mentally I felt more prepared because we had just been through the training, and fortunately he was not experiencing cardiac arrest, but having that additional level of confidence was exactly what we're aiming for through this partnership."Damar Camacho, Chest Pain Center Coordinator for AdventHealth Tampa Pepin Heart Institute, said the partnership grew out of the hospital's accreditation as a chest pain center, which includes a commitment to community education and outreach."We recognized the Drop as being an incredible community partner, as they are also committed to helping those in the community that are underserved and maybe displaced," Camacho said. "We thought that it would be very appropriate for us to partner with Pepin Heart Institute and the foundation to make sure that we could provide them with this AED by donating it, and as a resource to helping those in the community."Camacho, a nurse, demonstrated how the AED works, emphasizing that the device is designed for anyone, regardless of medical training."They are universal machines. They do not require any more training than obviously turning it on because it can walk you through the rest," Camacho said. "The pictures actually show you exactly where the pads go." Camacho said the goal of community training is to build confidence in bystanders who may one day need to act."I hope that you never have to use these tools, but now if you're ever faced with that, you know that you can jump in and help, feeling a little bit more confident than you did before, and that you may possibly save that person's life," Camacho said.Tina Pepin, Executive Director of the Pepin Family Foundation, said the donation reflects a decades-long family commitment to heart health rooted in personal experience."My grandfather's life was saved by a heart transplant, and since then we wanted to help bring world-class cardiovascular care to the Tampa Bay area through the Pepin Heart Institute at Advent Health," Pepin said. "This is just a powerful example of how partnerships can truly improve health and save lives and strengthen our community." Pepin said the urgency of placing AEDs in places like the Drop is clear."Medical emergencies can happen at any time, and people experiencing homelessness are greatly impacted by cardiovascular disease," Pepin said. "These machines are portable devices that can help someone experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, and they should be accessible everywhere."Pepin said visiting the Drop for the first time made the donation feel especially meaningful."It truly feels like home, and I'm so honored to just be a part of this process and this partnership," Pepin said. The Drop opened on Nov. 4, 2025, after its previous operator was forced to close due to federal funding cuts. Well Built Cities took over the initiative and initially opened twice a week before scaling up to five days a week. The organization offers access to showers, laundry, food, Wi-Fi, and other basic services.McCullus said the Drop plans to hold additional AED training sessions with Camacho and intends to invite community members to participate."The more people who know how to use this machine, the safer we'll be," McCullus said.For Dunfee, the AED is one more reason the Drop feels like the right place to be."Having life-saving equipment like this from our friends at Pepin and Advent makes it all the more safe for everyone," Dunfee said. ...read more read less