$500-plus in Student Registration Fees Goes to Homeless Shelter
A billion children live in poverty worldwide and 750 million persons lack adequate drinking water, one half of the world lives on less than $2.50 a day, 12 percent of America’s homeless are veterans and 1.2 million high school students in the U.S. are homeless.
(PICTURED) Sigma Zeta fraternity members, from the left, Dane Blumenstock, Michael Smith and Gage Bley work on the Sig-Kappa chateau for the night.
While Wilmington College students spent Friday evening (Sept. 30) constructing cardboard dwellings in a warm, casual atmosphere with music and refreshments, those cold facts were evident as each of the dozen or so groups participating was asked to research an aspect of homelessness and scribble their findings on their boxes/houses.
Many weathered sleeping in their temporary homes as temperatures dipped into the low 50s knowing they didn’t have to stay all night — their real campus homes were a stone’s throw away.
If the national and international numbers on poverty and homelessness didn’t make an impression, numbers provided by the Clinton County Homeless Shelter gave them a startling local perspective. Over a nine-month period, the Homeless Shelter typically houses 250 men, women and children and serves 24,000 meals.
For some in Wilmington, a cardboard box would be a step up as there have been reports persons living with little shelter in nearby woods. The Homeless Shelter houses persons for up to 90 days while helping them finds jobs and medical care.
WC’s student online newspaper, The Witness, reported more than $500 was raised for the shelter as a result of students’ registration fees.
