Youth learn about homelessness during Box City event |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 05 December 2008 01:00 |
TOLEDO—More than 80 young people braved the chilly November air on a recent Friday night to camp out in cardboard shelters on the campus of Toledo Blessed Sacrament.
The eighth-graders and high school students created the "Box City" and learned about the issue of homelessness before volunteering the next day at sites operated by Cherry Street Mission Ministries, a Toledo nonprofit serving homeless and low-income individuals. Catholic youth from Blessed Sacrament, St. Clement, Christ the King, St. Charles, St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, St. Pius X and Little Flower parishes in Toledo, Perrysburg St. Rose and Sylvania St. Joseph participated in the event, which was held Nov. 7-8.
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| Central Catholic High School sophomores, from left, Liz Burnard of
Toledo Christ the King, Maggie Gilmore of Toledo St. Patrick of
Heatherdowns and Maggie Mahoney of Christ the King were among more than
80 young people to participate in a Box City event at Toledo Blessed
Sacrament in November. (Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens Bertke) |
"We focus on prayer, service and community," said Linda Gutierrez, an organizer of the event who serves as youth minister for St. Clement.
She and youth minister Karen McCarthy of Blessed Sacrament started the annual Box City two years ago to teach teens the importance of service to others.
"They’re the future of our world, and we need to help teach them to take care of each other," said Mrs. Gutierrez.
Ms. McCarthy added the event shows youth "that doing service is kind of fun."
Along with building and decorating their box shelters on Friday night, the youth played games and enjoyed a bonfire, attended a prayer service and listened to a presentation on homelessness by Roz Goodwin, director of community service for Cherry Street Mission Ministries.
Standing outside her makeshift cardboard refuge, Liz Burnard, a sophomore at Toledo Central Catholic High School and member of Christ the King, said the experience made her think about what it really is like to be homeless and having to sleep in the cold every night.
"It really makes you appreciate what you have," adds Maggie Mahoney, also a sophomore at Central Catholic and member of Christ the King. Ms. Mahoney, Ms. Burnard and their classmate, Maggie Gilmore of St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, built their shelter for the evening from several large boxes.
Ms. Goodwin said the Box City is a good way to increase awareness among youth about homelessness. "Like one of the kids said, you don’t realize how good you have it until you walk in someone else’s shoes," she added.
In her presentation, Ms. Goodwin encouraged the youth to pray for homeless people who really have to sleep outside every night. "A lot of them have too much pride to come to places like Cherry Street for help," she explained.
The teenagers watched a documentary about Cherry Street Mission that included interviews with former clients. The video "paints a very realistic and broad reality that homelessness does not discriminate," said Ms. Goodwin. "It does not matter your age, gender or race."
The mission of Cherry Street Mission Ministries is "to provide purposeful discipleship by rescuing the downtrodden, restoring hope to the hopeless and releasing God’s greatness to those we serve." The Christian organization provides food, clothing, shelter and other services such as literacy and vocational training, resource networking and job readiness assistance to those in need.
Because it does not receive any government funding, Cherry Street Mission relies on volunteers and donations to operate.
Ms. Goodwin said the Catholic youth were to help on Saturday with such tasks as cleaning, organizing clothing donations and preparing and serving meals at the sites operated by Cherry Street Mission Ministries.
After volunteering during the day, the group returned to Blessed Sacrament to attend Mass and conclude the Box City event with a pizza dinner.
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 February 2009 09:39 |
