Chuck McCullough is retired, but he’s rarely resting. A do-gooder of the first order, he is gearing up for another winter of helping the homeless.

McCullough and his wife, Rebecca, joined Wareham’s Church of the Good Shepherd after relocating to Mattapoisett from Waltham about seven years ago. At the time, the Wareham Area Clergy Association was just beginning the Nights of Hospitality, a shelter for the homeless throughout the cold winter months.

“I just offered to help when they started the program,” said McCullough, who is now one of the chief volunteers for the shelter.

The Nights of Hospitality, hosted at Emmanuel Assembly of God and St. Patrick’s Church, opens just after Christmas and runs for 12 to 13 weeks, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. McCullough, a senior warden at his church, runs one week a month of the shelters.

“We’re all aware of homelessness, we read about it everyday. We hear about it everyday,” said McCullough, but it takes dedication and compassion to help them out.

McCullough began working with disadvantaged populations while still in Waltham. At that time, he volunteered with Latina women.

“The husbands are out working, becoming assimilated, the kids are in school, and the wives were stuck in housekeeping where you didn’t need to learn the language,” McCullough said.

On the South Coast, he has continued volunteering, and keeps busy working part-time for the Water and Sewer Department.

This year, he’s taken on a new project – helping a group of churches and organizations on Martha’s Vineyard start up their own Nights of Hospitality. McCullough’s minister, Dan Bernier, connected him to the fledgling group, and for the past six or so months, McCullough has worked with the group to help them get started.

“There is some apprehension,” he said.

But McCullough is setting the group up for success. He has learned a lot about caring for the homeless as well as the “almost homeless.” In addition to the Nights of Hospitality, McCullough also volunteers to provide meals to the homeless who placed in Wareham motels by the state.

At the shelter, he allows the homeless to be as anonymous as they want to be.

“I won’t ever ask anyone what their issues are,” he said. “We don’t pry. We don’t ask for ID.”

As such, the shelter has built up a rapport in the community. Last year the shelter hosted 49 different “souls,” compared to the average of 30 to 35 in previous years.

“It could be more because the problem is worse or it could be more because we’re trusted,” McCullough said. “When you work with them, they truly are just another body that’s trying to get through life, trying to get through everyday. Anything I can do to help them out.”