One story about the night:
I worked the registration booth for most of the evening - not all that glamorous - I missed the program for the evening, but I got to meet a lot of people and hear a little bit about why they were sleeping out with us.
The Registration Booth
After the program had ended and we'd cleaned up most of the registration area a couple of people walked up with sleeping bags. As most people were sleeping in teams - we asked them what group they were with. The women replied she was unemployed - somehow she and her friend had heard about the event and made their way down to support the cause. They'd also heard we were taking donations and she pulled out her checkbook and wrote us a check for $20.
$20 was probably the most modest donation we received on the evening - but for me it was the most meaningful. On a night about raising awareness and developing empathy for the homeless... on the coldest night of the year - I was really moved that two people who don't know where their next paycheck is coming from would show up to support the event and insist on giving donations. $20 isn't a lot of money - in the grand scheme of things - her gesture was symbolic to me of her hope. Hope that her money and time that evening was well spent to help hurting people.
Sleepers - we were joined by CEOs, members of Houston City Council, and everyday folks.
Heres a link to a local news-story about the event. It was linked on the front page of yahoo.com Monday morning!
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou081116_mp_cold-weather-group.1bb33848a.html
Thanks to everybody who supported the event.
1 comment:
Jake - this is so cool. I loved reading about it - what a great event. I wonder if they have anything like that in our area...I would love to take my kids to something like that. Not in the next few months of course, Wisconsin is already so COLD! We are looking forward to another insane winter. Thanks for posting!
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