Paw Paw senior Brooke Willis chose to go homeless for 24 hours Wednesday.
“We had blankets and sleeping bags and stuff, so it’s not as cold as
it has to be for someone who has to legitimately try and do this every
night,” Willis said.
After an hour of cardboard house-building, starting at midnight
Wednesday on the sidewalk beside Charles V. Park Library, and two hours
of chalking homelessness statistics around campus, around 12 students
crawled into their makeshift homes for the night to raise awareness
about hunger and homelessness.
Milford senior Danielle Ash had not been planning on spending the
night outside with Willis, but believed raising awareness was a good
cause. After she helped construct the cardboard houses, Ash decided to
spend the night.
Though it was closer to homeless than she had ever been, she still
felt it was much easier than it is for people who are homeless.
“Yeah, I slept outside, but it was with four girls I trust next to me,” Ash said.
An interesting time
In the morning, Willis said it was a little awkward to be sleeping when students started walking by, but it was not too strange.
“There’s a lot of questions, but I guess I am used to it,” she said.
It is the third year Willis has spent a day of Hunger and
Homelessness Awareness Week living outside. She and her friends thought
it would be a neat idea to start doing the ‘campout’ her sophomore year.
This year had the nicest weather she experienced, but she could still feel it at the end of the day.
“It’s tiring in general because your body has to work so hard to stay warm,” she said.
Later that afternoon, Willis was joined by White Lake freshman
Daniel Breitenbach, who learned about the event through the Volunteer
Central Web site.
“I always had an issue with world hunger,” Breitenbach said. “Hunger
here is quite preventable — it’s just that people here don’t take
action about it.”
Willis fielded interesting questions and comments throughout the
day. One man called them drunk bums, but she felt he was just playing
into stereotypes.
Many people gave positive responses and were interested in donating
to the Christian Unity Restoration Home, a Mount Pleasant homeless
shelter in its fundraising stages.
“It was good to be able to talk to people and just share in the same
cause as other people who are passionate about the issue,” Willis said.
At the end of the day, most participants were ready to return to
their normal lives, free of cold wind and the fear of their box homes
falling on them.
“My bed is waiting for me,” Ash said.
