A Night on the Streets

Here is our group of 24 kids from the First Universalist Church.

OK, so what is "A Night on the Streets?"

It is an event where 320 teens from 30 Twin Cities congregations spend the night in a church parking lot near downtown Minneapolis (walking distance from our house) to learn about youth homelessness. They had to stand in a very long line for their dinner (soup kitchen style) and spent the night sleeping out in cardboard boxes. This event is to increase awareness of youth homelessness, but also raise money to help



We heard from some youth who have been homeless and some who currently are homeless, along with folks who work for different groups that help the homeless youth. It was a lot of information to take in and we had a chat with the kids before bed to talk about what we all learned.

It all started on a fun camp out kind of note ....



...which quickly gave way to rain for the entire night.



Here is the inside of my box at 3am.... and a soaking wet sleeping bag!



I quickly took a plastic bag to use as a replacement sleeping bag - it wasn't warm, but it was dry. As I lay there getting more and more wet I really couldn't feel that sorry for myself. I knew I would be getting up and going home in the morning and I kept thinking of how the folks in New Orleans must of felt with their waters rising. I was dealing with less than an inch of water in my sleeping area! One of the parent asked in the morning "Can you imagine waking from a wet night like we had and then getting yourself to school?" That is what our homeless youth are doing.



Waiting for their parents to pick the youth take some naps to catch up on their lack of sleep.