Home sweet homeless

Homer senior Katie Warner wanted the perspective of the people she will help.

Instead of sleeping in her warm, comfortable bed, Warner and about 15 students braved the cold and rainy weather Wednesday night and slept outside the Charles V. Park Library courtyard.

“Real homeless people have to sleep outside whenever it rains or snows,” she said.

Warner is doing an alternative break next month working in a Washington, D.C. soup kitchen.

The cold and tired students spread awareness of the hungry and homeless as part of the third annual Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

“It’s a good experience,” said Tim Muller, Sterling Heights senior. “There is a distinct lack of stepping into other people’s shoes. Most people don’t stop and take the time to think about what it’s like to be homeless.”

The students, armed with cardboard boxes and blankets, set up homemade shelters to shield themselves from the wind, rain and cold for 24 hours.

Most of the students sleeping outside were members of the World Peace Initiative and the Volunteer Center.

“Homelessness isn’t just a problem in New York and other big cities,” Muller said. “In places like Detroit you see homeless people all the time and not everyone thinks about what they have to go through, including me.”

Clinton sophomore Jacy Lancaster volunteered to sleep outside after she heard about the sleepover from her friend who is a member of the World Peace Initiative.

“I was really interested in doing this,” she said. “It’s something that’s beneficial to campus and it’s cool being a part of it.”

Paw Paw sophomore Brooke Willis, World Peace Initiative president, planned on staying out until the early hours of Thursday morning.

“We sometimes see people on campus collecting cans and you don’t see what they have to go home to, which is sometimes nothing,” Willis said. “Many students don’t know there are 56 homeless people in Mount Pleasant.”

Willis said she hopes the demonstration will encourage people in the community to volunteer.

“A lot of people are more likely to volunteer when they see other people their age doing it,” she said.

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