Club sleeps out for the homeless

By Amanda Koehler
Collegian Editor
April 12, 2006

Homeless Outreach will hold its first ever “Sleep Out” on the Main Quad to show students what it is like to be homeless on Tuesday, April 18 to Wednesday, April 19.

The organization decided to hold the event to bring the work that the members normally do outside of campus back to the La Salle community.

“We needed to put something out there [to the campus] so that people could see what we do and see what it is like to be homeless,” coordinator Kaitlyn Muller said.

Homeless Outreach goes to 802 North Broad St. every Monday evening to help out the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness (PCEH). Known as “802,” PCEH’s Day Center provides showers to homeless men and peer counseling to men and women. The members of Homeless Outreach help with PCEH’s Street Outreach program by talking to homeless people around the city about 802.

Muller, a junior, said that the members enjoy interacting with the homeless.

“You’re taught that you aren’t supposed to talk to homeless people, but it’s great to see stereotypes being broken down,” she said.

Although Muller is happy with the organization’s consistent volunteer base, she felt that the University community didn’t know what Homeless Outreach was doing, since all of its volunteer work is done outside the campus. Muller and the club’s other coordinators, Keith Burke, Kathryn Knapp and Beth Myers-Edwards, got together and decided to hold a sleep out, since other clubs have held them in the past successfully.

The sleep out will start at 9:30 Tuesday night and will go to 6:30 on Wednesday morning. Participants are asked to bring either a sock or underwear package for 802 or $5.

Homeless Outreach is asking all people who are interested to dress warmly and to bring their own sleeping bags, supplies, snacks and water.

“Since we’re trying to simulate homelessness, there won’t be puffy throw pillows to go around or a big buffet,” Muller said.

The organization is excited for its event, and is currently planning a large-scale sleep out involving other organizations in September.

“I think it’s going to be really good. People know that there are homeless people, and I think it would be a good experience for people to go [to the sleep out] and see how they really live,” sophomore Knapp said.

Homeless Outreach is encouraging students to register for the event ahead of time by e-mailing Muller at mullerk1@lasalle.edu, but the club will still let students register the day of the sleep out.

koehlera1@lasalle.edu