This was going to be about roller derby and a woman who skates for the Elm City Derby Damez.

But really, how can you just have a story about roller derby and not have a story behind the story? I mean, roller derby doesn’t just happen. It’s not something you do growing up, like tennis or figure skating or softball.

There’s a journey to roller derby, and every journey is a story. This is one of those stories.

Cherilyn Hautanen actually did roller skate when she was younger, skating Saturday nights inside Conant High School’s Pratt Auditorium in Jaffrey.

But that was before high school and the string of failed relationships. Before the three kids and the nights sleeping on couches of people willing to let her crash at their place because she didn’t have a place of her own.

The Cherilyn Hautanen who spent her Saturday nights roller skating was a smart, pretty young girl growing up in Jaffrey. She hadn’t reached high school yet, hadn’t lost interest in school, hadn’t started to drift.

She hadn’t yet been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, checked herself into the psych ward of a local hospital or been thrown out of her apartment and forced to take her kids to a homeless shelter.

She hadn’t yet lost the kids because she couldn’t take care of them, been kicked out of her mother’s house or attempted suicide more as a cry for help than anything else. She hadn’t yet come to the realization that of all the people who were trying to get her help, the one who consistently failed to step up was she herself.

Most journeys don’t go as planned, but Hautanen surely never could have imagined during those Saturday nights skating inside Pratt Auditorium that this was going to be her path.

I met Hautanen about a month ago at the Hundred Nights shelter in Keene. The shelter has a drop-in center that gives people a chance to get out of the cold during the day, maybe even use the center’s computer to look for jobs or send emails.

For me, the center was a place to take my teenage daughter to see what can happen when things go wrong. Hautanen is a volunteer at the shelter and the first person I met when I walked in.

She introduced me to Don Primrose, the man who opened the shelter in January of 2010 after learning how many people are homeless in the area and how few places there are for them to stay warm at night. I also met Liza Wyman, the shelter’s new executive director.

They came up with a plan to keep my daughter busy for a week, introducing her to people and showing her places she probably never thought she’d see or ever want to be.

You want life to go perfectly for your kids, but they stumble. You can only hope they get back up. I think Cherilyn Hautanen is one of the ones who finally got back up.

She’s 33 now and out of the shelter. She has a stable relationship, lives in a house. Her oldest daughter lives with her full time, and she shares custody of her other two kids. There are no absolutes, but she seems to have learned how to cope with her disorder.

She volunteers three to four days a week at the shelter because she knows what it’s like. She knows there are people who need long-term help, but more important, need a cup of coffee, a place to sit, somewhere they can go and not feel hassled or outcast.

Homelessness is never the first choice of anyone. There’s always a reason why someone ended up there. You may be surprised how many there are; some studies estimate more than 1 million people in this country experience homelessness on any given night. There are not enough beds in homeless shelters to accommodate the people who need them.

Some make it; others are found dead in a tent in the woods because they didn’t have enough warm clothes to make it through another freezing night.

Think about this: Primrose said 84 students currently in the Keene school district are considered homeless. That isn’t their choice.

Hundred Nights, which has 30 beds, has hosted 200 different people in less than two years. Some have used the resource center to find work, get into permanent housing and become part of the mainstream again. Others just kept falling.

All sorts of volunteers staff the place. There are doctors, lawyers and retired people. Primrose was a carpenter and teacher.

Then there are people like Hautanen who used to be guests.

Primrose says they are valuable members of the staff because they can relate to the people coming through the doors. They understand and can help without having to ask too many questions.

Hautanen says she enjoys helping people understand the system and finding help. She hopes someday to be a case worker.

In the meantime, she’s joined the Elm City Derby Damez and is practicing to be part of the club’s roller derby season next year. She says she loves being around the women involved because they are encouraging, inclusive and not judgmental. She also loves the workout and getting a chance to hit people.

Hautanen never thought she would end up being part of the roller derby. There is a lot she didn’t see coming.

That’s what makes the journey.

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Jim Fennell may be reached at jfennell@unionleader.com.