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Students upbeat after four nights outdoors

By: Jen Skerritt

Posted: 03/18/2010 8:59 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Students continue their 5 Days For the Homeless project this morning. Three students have been camping outside the University Centre Building since Sunday to raise funds and consciences for the plight of the homeless while experiencing some of the hardships of living outside. From left: Sid Rashid, Mike Gould, Emina Tankovic, Kayla Wai, Caitlin Thompson, Zachary Derksen.

WINNIPEG - After four sleep-deprived nights on the cold frosty ground, five University of Manitoba students are looking forward to a warm bed and a hot shower.
The students have camped out at their "home" outside the University Centre since Sunday evening armed with nothing more than a sleeping bag and a pillow for a five-day stretch to simulate homelessness and raise awareness.
Caitlin Thompson, 21, said this week’s mild weather has helped them avoid bitterly cold nights typical for this time of year. Still, she said the group rummaged to find cardboard to build a makeshift shelter to insulate them from the chill the crept in through their sleeping bags.
"You are sleeping outside with people walking by on the hard ground," Thompson said, noting she probably only slept a total of four hours her first two nights outside.
"Last night was one of our best nights. We reorganized our shelter and condensed ourselves so we were closer together."
Five Days for the Homeless fundraising campaign was first held in Winnipeg in 2009 and University of Manitoba students then raised over $13,000 for Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY), an organization in downtown Winnipeg that works with disadvantaged, at-risk youth.
So far, Thompson estimates this year’s event has already raised more than $7,000. She said she and fellow students — including Kayla Wai, Emina Tankovic, Mike Gould and Zachary Derksen — have been criticized for holding the event on campus instead of in the city’s downtown, where many of Winnipeg’s poor frequent shelters or sleep on the streets.
Thompson said the idea is to educate the student population about the plight of Winnipeg’s less fortunate, and that they have had many conversations with passerby about the issue.
The simulation of living as homeless people includes subsisting on donations of food and drink, wearing the same clothing — they can add or remove layers as required — and not showering until the five days is up Friday evening.
Thompson said the group has had plenty to eat, and filled their bellies with donuts and coffee and fruit donated by students. They’ve spent most of time days outside, she said, to make adjusting to the nightly freezing temperatures a little easier.
"Everyone’s been so generous," Thompson said. "We’ve gotten a lot of donuts and coffee."
jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca

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