With no presumption that they could know what it really means to be homeless, Saint Michael's College students are nevertheless again putting in time in a "shack" to better understand homelessness.
For at least the last decade, Saint Michael's students have erected a crude wooden structure in the middle of the campus green, and have taken shifts to inhabit this 'shack' day and night for a week, this time from Sunday, Nov. 11 to Friday, Nov. 16.
"The purpose," the students wrote, "is not to simulate homelessness - but quite the opposite... the intention of the Shack is to raise awareness and to be a presence reminding the campus community that homeless does exist here in Vermont. "An hour in the Shack," they say, "will not show you what it's like to be homeless, but may give you some insight into the strength and perseverance needed when one does not have a place to call home."
The project is part of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week with daily events designed to educate the campus to the fact that people in our own Vermont community are hungry and homeless. Additional events, coordinated by students in the Edmundite Campus Ministry program, MOVE (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts) are as follows:
Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week - November 11-16, 2012
All Week
- Sit in the "Shack," sponsored by SMC Habitat for Humanity
- Sign up to participate in all activities on the MOVE Board
Sunday, November 11
- 7 PM Mass remembering those who experience hunger and homelessness
Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel
Monday, November 12
- 5:30 - 8 PM Dismas House Phonathon - Hall of Fame Room, Tarrant Center (dinner included)
- 5:30 PM Family Friends - Volunteer at COTS' Main Street Family Shelter
- 6:30 PM Cause for Paws: Collect and bag pet food for the Food Shelf - Eddie's Lounge, Alliot
Tuesday, November 13
- 5:30 - 8 PM Dismas House Phonathon - Hall of Fame Room, Tarrant Center (dinner included)
Wednesday, November 14
- 3:30 PM International Coffee Hour - canned food collection - St. Edmund's Lobby
- 5 PM Knitting Club - knit hats and mittens for area shelters - Eddie's
- 5 PM Baked Love's 24-Hour Fast begins (sign up at the information table in Alliot)
- 5:30 - 8 PM Dismas House Phonathon - Hall of Fame Room, Tarrant Center (dinner included)
- 5:30 PM Family Friends - Volunteer at COTS' Main Street Family Shelter
Thursday, November 15
- 5:30 PM Baked Love's Break-the-Fast Dinner with guest speaker, Bob Mariano, volunteer coordinator, Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf - Eddie's
- 8:30 PM Closing Vigil - outside the Shack
Other events throughout the week include an Informational Table to sign up for the 24-hour Fast, learn about hunger and homelessness in Vermont and theworld, and sign a letter to advocate for policy change; hunger statistics posted throughout campus; canned food collection in Sodexo.
Student organizers of the week's event include:
- Jerry Carter, Samantha Chappelle, Reilly D'Elia, Amy Winter, of the Baked Love MOVE group
- Nicole Buckley, Patrick Cope, Steve Weng, of the Habitat for Humanity MOVE group
- Ashley Lincoln of MOVE's Cause for Paws group
- Olivia McCall, Bernadette Berry, Kierstyn Callahan, Lauren Turner, Meg Bennison of MOVE's Family Friends group
- Sarah Ames of MOVE's Dismas group