‘5 Days’ participants come up short in donations, but not in heart
Written by Josh Doyle
If you noticed a sudden influx of homeless people on campus last week, you’re not the only one. From March 15-19, four University of Guelph students participated in a campaign to raise awareness and money to benefit the homeless.
Four U of G students were homeless for five days on the U of G campus to raise awareness. They were not allowed to leave the campus, they had to sleep outside, and they could only donated food. Photo by Rashaad Bhamjee.
The catch? They had to be homeless themselves for five days: sleeping outside, never leaving the campus and eating only donated food.
“Going into this campaign, I knew that by Friday at 5pm my life would be back to the way it was,” said Ally Rogin, a University of Guelph student who participated in the 5 Days for the Homeless campaign. “I knew if I got sick or needed to go home because things got too tough, I had that option. Not all of us are that fortunate.”
The event kicked off last Sunday with the understanding that all participants would sleep outdoors on campus, have no access to technology, and eat only what they were given by the generous. Luckily for them, people here like to help.
“There was an overwhelming amount of support from the community. It was great to see how many people were appreciative about what we’re doing and encouraging us to continue,” said Rogin.
The participants were also fortunate to have nice weather during their five days being homeless, which Rogin and her fellow participants report was the easiest of their many challenges.
“Last year’s campaign [had] the participants sleeping in minus 15 degrees. Although the nights were cold, we were more prone to heat stroke than hypothermia this year,” explained Rogin.
The warm weather may have been easier to deal with than snow, but don’t think this year’s participants had an easy time with their sacrifice.
“The hardest part of the experience was being dependent on others. We take for granted the amount of freedom we have to make our own rules,” said Rogin.
The event was started by business students at the University of Alberta in 2005 in order to help ease the burden faced by homeless people. It has since received international attention and involvement. So far this year, $173, 144 has been raised through the event; $3,532 of which was raised in Guelph. This, however, is far less than Guelph participants wished to contribute, amounting to only 47 per cent of the $7,500 goal.
According to Rogin, the participants hoped for better.
“If people are reluctant to donate, it may be that they cannot see the impact that their donations have,” she said. “We hope to have opened people’s eyes to the problems experienced by homeless youth.”
Even in this day and age, a common question still posed about the homeless is, “Why don’t they get a job?” The assumption, of course, is that getting a job is quite easy.
A quick look at today’s employment climate tells us that getting a job is actually far from easy, and without access to a shower or a safe place to sleep at night, it becomes nearly impossible.
“If this campaign increased awareness and provided hope and refuge for some of these young people, I think we did an amazing thing,” Rogin said.
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