Event to spotlight plight of homeless
A few extra homeless will be sleeping on the streets of downtown Phoenix on Friday night.
Arizona Student Public Interest Research Group, in affiliation with students at Arizona State University, is hosting an overnight campout to raise awareness of hunger and homelessness.
The event will take place on First Friday from 9 p.m. until midnight in the Shade Garden outside Taylor Place, the student residential complex on the ASU Downtown campus.
The students plan to spend the night sleeping in makeshift box housing and sleeping bags, creating what they are a calling Box City.
In addition, those attending the First Friday art walk, will see students dressed to appear as part of the “homeless” community, carrying signs proclaiming “Keep Your Coins, We Want Change.”
The goal is to educate fellow students and the public about the growing plight of the homeless in the Phoenix area.
“With the way our economy is, services for the homeless and the working poor are going to grow in demand,” said event organizer and research group member Hugo Polanco. “Homelessness is not in the forefront of people’s minds but it’s a huge local issue.” Local acoustic band Valley Love will perform, donating 40 percent of proceeds from CDs sold at the event to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a charity that helps homeless and low-income families.
Blasé Bova, director of development at St. Vincent de Paul, will provide advice to students who want to help combat the problem of homelessness. Faith Glick, director of outreach at Stand Up for Kids, will offer insight on her experiences being homeless. Polanco, an ASU student who is volunteer coordinator for St. Vincent de Paul, is optimistic about the potential of the event and those involved.
“This is mostly geared toward college students, to tap into their energy and potential,” Polanco said. “(It’s) a local issue that we can get excited about and actually see change and results accomplished by it.”
In addition, the group hopes to create a network of interested young volunteers.
Miquette Reardon, president of Arizona Student PIRG at the downtown campus, admits that to get students involved PIRG had to refine the overnight campout.
“A lot of people said they didn’t want to come because it was going to be cold,” she said. “People who are homeless don’t have a choice in the weather. We’ve given them the option to come up until midnight . . . but we prefer that they stay.”
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