http://vinnies.org.au/files/NSW/Press%20Releases/More%20than%20200%20CEOs%20bed%20down%20to%20prove%

June 18, 2009 More than 200 CEOs bed down to prove the homeless are not invisible More than 200 CEOs and business leaders are taking part in this year’s Vinnies CEO Sleepout in a response, the CEO of St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, John Picot, describes as “overwhelming”.

“It is one thing to ask someone to donate money to an issue of enormous importance,” Mr Picot said. “It is another altogether to ask them to also experience an entire night of cold and discomfort. The fact that so many successful and busy business people have put their hands up to do so says something powerful.

“It says that people who are in a position of influence care, in a very real way, about their fellow Australians who have nothing. It says that the men, women and children, who are homeless, often sleeping in doorways, on crowded city streets or in the back of cars, are not invisible. They are seen; they are visible and they count.

“Most of us don’t know what to do when we see someone on the streets, broken, alone, cold and hungry. We want to do something but we feel powerless. The fact is that when we said to business leaders, ‘This is what you can do, they jumped.

“If a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, then Australian business must be judged by how it has responded to this call to help them.”

Mr Picot said the money raised would go towards the Society’s 37 homeless services around the State, including a new homeless service for families to open in inner-city Sydney later in the year.

“What these business leaders are doing is much more than a symbolic gesture,” Mr Picot said. “They have walked in another’s shoes, so to speak, and in doing so have raised a tremendous amount of money to make a real difference.

“I have no doubt this event, which began as very small fundraiser in Western Sydney some years ago, will continue to grow.. Tonight is its turning point. On behalf of the tens of thousands homeless Australians, I humbly thank all the participants for what they have done”.