This weekend is the third annual Homeless Hotel -- Friday at 7pm to Saturday at 7am. It's a fundraising event for YMCA ReConnect and Moncton Youth Residences, programs that work with homeless people in the Moncton area. The idea is to get a taste of homelessness by eating from the mobile soup kitchen and sleeping on the riverfront... with live entertainment 'til midnight, a DJ 'til 5am, and unhampered access to toilets and drinking water. So... not an exact replication of the homeless experience!This year we have seven people from the church participating, so we've split into two teams. More than ever before -- hooray!
I'm really hoping the organizers ignore the weather forecast. When rain threatened last year the event was moved into the Coliseum Agrena, which sucked. It's really loud when the whole thing happens outside, but inside a huge, concrete walled space, it's deafening. And sleeping nearly impossible. I think last year I knocked off at 4am. Oh well. One of the guys is bringing earplugs for the group, just in case.
3 comments:
hey melanie, how did it go? were you rained out?
That's a little weird. I mean, they don't move real homeless people to the Coliseum when it rains...
Agreed. It really is a fundraiser meant to raise awareness more than an eye-opening homelessness simulation. Unfortunately. But I guess that's they figure it's the most effective way to bring in the most money.
The event went ahead on the Riverfront, despite the rain forecast for the morning. The rain held off until late morning, so we stayed dry. I'm still recovering from the 2am bedtime/5am wakeup!
The first year raised $40,000 and last year was $60,000. I'm looking forward to finding out how much was raised this year!
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