Alpha Chi Rho spends 54 hours outside to raise money for Feed the Children
Tom Clark spent 16 consecutive hours outside Wednesday and Thursday, including a night in a tent.
But the Clarkston sophomore wasn't camping — he was raising cash for kids in need.
Clark and other members of Alpha Chi Rho spent 54 hours outside this week to raise money for Feed the Children, an international non-profit organization.
Their goal was to raise $500, enough to sponsor a child for a year, Bay City senior Kyle Elsea said.
“It has definitely motivated me to raise more money for it in the future because I’d hate to do this on a nightly basis,” Elsea said after his night in the tent.
He said they raised $410 as of 11 a.m Thursday.
His warm sleeping bag wasn’t enough when someone unplugged the tent heater with their feet Thursday night, he said, leaving the tent very cold by 6:30 a.m.
That morning the tent-dwellers joked about being poster children for “Feed the Children,” with bloodshot eyes in their early-morning classes, he said.
“You think after a while you will get used to (the cold),” Clark said. “But you don’t.”
Their phones could not even charge because it was so cold, he said, instead displaying error messages.
Before the evening cooled down, the trio of campers played board games and drank hot chocolate and coffee, Clark said. Some people brought handwarmers and cookies, which acquired a hockey puck consistency by morning.
“A lady that works inside (the UC) told us not (to leave the cookies outside), because the deer will get them,” Elsea said.
He said many students still walked by without donating despite the spectacle.
“That’s the biggest let-down right now, that ‘I don’t have the money,’ or ‘debit cards,’ or ‘I’m late for class,” Clark said.
This fundraiser was first hosted three or four years ago, but Elsea plans to make it an annual event and is already planning for next year.
“We’ll be much better prepared next year,” he said. “Next year, (we will) put a tarp under the tent so we’re not sleeping on the snow.”
They also want to make better signage so people know they are sleeping outside, not just standing infront of a tent, he said.
Even if other students did not know they were spending the night outdoors, the fraternity brothers learned a lot about life for people who don’t have as much as them, Elsea said.
Joe Drexler did not spend the night outside, but the Metamora freshman said he has plenty of time to participate. Next year he plans to sleep outside and looks forward to carrying on the tradition.
“It’s just giving back," Drexler said. "I feel like the starving children and homeless issue affects us more than we think. It kinda puts us in their shoes ... for only a few hours, but it’s what they go through every day.”
