I’m sleeping with a councillor... but it’s for a good cause

BEFORE things get totally out of hand, I need to address these persistent rumours I am going to be sleeping with city Coun. Jenny Gerbasi.

The rumours are completely true.

What you need to know is, on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 27, the Fort Rouge councillor and I will be sleeping under the stars in a small courtyard near the corner of Portage and Main.

It’s going to be very cosy — just Jenny and myself and approximately 52 other local business and community leaders, along with a handful of media celebrities.

We’re going to hunker down in our sleeping bags on a patch of grass in front of 201 Portage Ave., as part of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s second-annual CEO Sleepout, which hopes to raise $150,000 to help homeless Winnipeggers get off the streets.

The cash us movers and shakers collect — online pledges have already topped $53,000 — goes to the BIZ’s Change for the Better initiative, which supports employment programs for the homeless, such as Siloam Mission’s Mission: Off the Streets Team.

As a crusading humour columnist, when I interviewed Coun. Gerbasi, I couldn’t help but ask how she felt about the looming prospect of sleeping with me, or at least, in the same general area as me.

She said, and I will quote her directly: "Ha ha ha!

You’re not going to print that, are you?"

But she also said getting a bunch of bigwigs to camp out for one night on downtown streets is a good way to raise awareness of a critical issue. "The important thing is you have a bunch of people coming together to help," she said. "When you bring high-profile people to an activity, it gets more attention for the cause."

I personally became involved because I want to make the world a better place. Well, that and the fact when my buddy Bob, who is also our publisher, slept outside last year I dropped by to laugh at him, so this year he decided it would be a swell idea for me to volunteer.

"Plus, there’s a giant TV screen in the plaza where you’ll be bedding down and I knew you would like that," is what Bob assured me.

In a super-human journalistic effort to find out what Bob has got me to volunteer for, I sat down for espresso with Stefano Grande, the extremely friendly executive director of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ.

"This deals with social issues you see on the sidewalk every day, like homelessness, panhandlers and mental illness," Stefano said. "We truly believe there are solutions to these social issues in our downtown and downtowns around the world.

"One of these solutions is helping the homeless integrate back into our community through employment."

The general idea is you can do far more good by supporting programs that get people off the streets and into jobs and housing than by simply giving change to a panhandler.

"When you help someone deal with their challenges and provide employment and housing, you transform them," Stefano told me. "What we’re doing is getting the business community involved in this issue and they’re responding. A lot of CEOs are stepping out of their comfort zone."

I asked Bob what it was like sleeping on the streets last year. When it comes to sleeping, Bob is the best you’ll find, so basically he just zipped up his bag and it was lights out. But he also said this: "It’s an interesting experience. Of course, it’s symbolic. You’re in a secure spot, you know you’re getting fed in the morning and going home to a warm place. But at a certain point you look at the cold ground and think, ‘Yeah, that’s my bed tonight.’ It makes you very thankful for what you have."

Which reminds me: I will be very thankful if you stop what you are doing right now, go to www.changeforthebetter. org, and click the Donate Now button under my photograph.

While you’re at it, it would be nice if you could kick in a little cash for Jenny Gerbasi’s pledge drive, because I think she deserves some compensation for all those rumours I’ve been spreading.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca