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.

English language and literature instructor Sue Murphy gives a donation Wednesday in Central Park during the Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week cardboard box project. Several volunteers stayed in the shelter for 24 hours as part of the week and accepted donations of socks, money and food for the new Christian Unity Restoration Home. (Jeff Smith/Staff Photographer)

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.

E-mail the author: Maryellen Tighe