inside this issue:
Hand Over the Keys Details on page 7
University of Maine at Presque Isle Volume 42 Issue 4
Midnight Madness Details on page 16
Journalism for Northern Maine Visit us at utimes.umpi.edu
NOVEMBER 8, 2013
See For Yourself Stephanie Jellett STAFF WRITER
Imagine what it's like to be homeless. You don't have anywhere warm to sleep, no food to eat and you're all alone. Some of you may have witnessed this. Some of you may know a person who was or is homeless. Maybe you didn't have anywhere to go for a while yourself. Whatever the case, on Friday, Oct. 18, outside Gentile Hall, the Student Organization of Social Workers hosted an event that allowed people to live this sort of life, if only for a
few hours. Julie Devine, the chair of SOSW, explained that, every year, the club has a theme to create events around. This year's theme was “walk into my story.” The 12 Hours of Homelessness activity she and others organized did just that. It allowed participants to try out a reality that many people face daily. “The purpose of the event was to show how it feels to be cold, wet, hungry and have no belongings,” Devine said. “And to think about how the body was affected afterwards. One person
was sick from the cold.” Fifteen people came and went during the 12 hour event, but seven slept overnight. The participants had to donate one non-perishable food item or pay two dollars. All the proceeds went to the Sister Mary O'Donnell Homeless Shelter in Presque Isle. Throughout the night, starting from 7 p.m., SOSW had different activities to keep everyone busy. The first included building shelters out of cardboard boxes provided by various local businesses. Those would serve as their homes for the night. They
Chris Staples(right) and Ryan Ouellette(left) getting their shelters ready.
also took part in a scavenger hunt, where members of two teams had to compete for different resources, and watched the movie “With Honors.” “The event definitely opened my eyes as far as what homeless people go through. I was only able to stay 'til5 a.m. and experienced symptoms such as fatigue, hunger and, of course, cold,” Tim Babine, who participated in the event, said. Kayla Ames, another participant, found the experience to be positive and enlightening. “I think more people need to be aware of this, of what it truly means to be homeless. They can sympathize and help out – that's great – but even after all this, I can't truly understand what it means to struggle to survive, to have no choice in the matter and be completely alone. If more of us knew what that felt like, maybe there wouldn't be any homeless people,” Ames said. The event ended at 7 a.m. Devine said she would do it again. “Think of the big picture. That was only 12 hours....some people didn't make it the full night. Think about days, weeks, months. Think of how it would affect you a year from now.” It's not a pretty picture.
Sarah Ames laying in her shelter. Homelessness isn't something we like to think about. But it's a reality and a possibility – if not for us, then people we know, or people we might come to know. Even if we can't personally relate, we have a responsibility to our fellow humans beings. The important thing to remember is: you can make a difference. You can effect change by donating to homeless shelters, spreading awareness and trying to walk a mile in someone else's shoes – or, rather, by trying to sleep 12 hours in someone else's cardboard shelter.