“A Night Without a Home” event raises donations for homelessness

By Laura Christian
Western Herald

Cold weather did not keep people from donating both clothes and time to the first “A Night Without a Home” sleep-in.

This year’s homeless sleep-in took place at the Western Michigan University flagpoles located by Sangren Hall and began at 3 p.m., Nov. 18, and lasted until noon, Nov. 19.

The group who organized the event was part of a 2100 social work class. They educated WMU and the greater community about the homeless in Kalamazoo during this event for Homelessness Awareness Week.

“I think it went really well, especially for the first time,” Brad DeLoof, WMU sophomore and event co-chair, said. “We got two and a half van loads full of clothes donations, $50 in donations, which we’re going to go to the Dollar Store and get hygiene products to take to Ministry with Community.”

There were also food donations during the event.

“We have an entire van stuffed full of clothes that are going to the Gospel Mission, and they are really excited to get them,” Madison Branch, coordinator of the clothing drive, said. “We got some food donations that are also going there, because they feed on an average 519 meals every day.”

During the event, DeLoof and April Davenport, a WMU junior and co-chair for the event, were the only two who slept through the night.

“We had a couple of people who stayed up for the whole night,” Davenport said. “Someone actually showed up at 11 o’clock [p.m.] and stayed until 8 this morning. A lot of our classmates were in-and-out throughout the night.”

“We had about 20 to 30 people show up total from our class and from friends and stuff. We’re happy,” DeLoof said.

During the sleep-in, Wayside West provided the students with free pizza and WMU’s Bernhard Center stayed open for students to use the restrooms.

Barbara Barton, the students’ 2100 social work professor, oversaw and helped plan the sleep-in. She was thankful for the support and donations from students and the community that made the event a huge success, she said.

“I look forward to doing it again in the future,” Barton said.

This sleep-in was different from similar events on campus because it included a clothing drive, Barton said.

The uniqueness of the event and the positive turn out has caused students involved in “A Night Without a Home” to begin thinking about next year’s event.

“We are hoping to kind of partner with the other colleges next year and make it even bigger,” DeLoof said.

Barton and her students want this event to last for years to come.

“We may even have a board to represent each college,” DeLoof said. “So we can continue this after we’re gone and we can pick people to take over and make this stay a huge success.”

As of right now, the students involved are beginning a petition to help the homeless in Kalamazoo.

“Within the next week we’re going to be having a petition to sign [circulating] out, to start new legislation and help fix the homeless problem the best we can,” DeLoof said.

“And we’re meeting with [Kalamazoo] City Commissioners about it [next Sunday],” Davenport said.

To find out more information, visit their Facebook page by searching for “A Night Without a Home.”

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=21913

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Nov 21 2010. Filed under Breaking, Campus, Local, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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