Students raise awareness for homelessness

Photo: Kayla Collins

AWARENESS — Seniors Nick Lacasse and Laura Farr sit in front of a shelter made of cardboard boxes that they spent the night in on school grounds last week for their senior project on area homelessness, which will be presented to a panel of judges at the school in May. According to Farr, every senior must pass their senior project in order to graduate.

Photo: Kayla Collins

CARDBOARD HOMES — Seniors Max Brown and Kalynn Bangs build one of many shelters from cardboard boxes that students slept in last week, as part of a senior project to raise awareness on area homelessness.

OXFORD HILLS — About 13 students from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School spent a night outside in cardboard boxes last week to raise awareness on area homelessness and to experience, to a degree, what it feels like to be homeless.

"It went very well, but it was very cold," said OHCHS senior Laura Farr, of her senior project, which she will present with classmate Nick Lacasse to a panel of judges in May.

"It was eye-opening," said Farr. "You just don't know how someone could do that everyday; especially since it was April — you can't imagine what they could go through in February, or January."

According to Lacasse, the temperature dropped to 27 degrees that night, which was the most challenging thing to overcome.

"It was below freezing," he said.

While the goal was to get 20 students and staff to sleep outside, only 13 actually "toughed it out through the night," said Farr. Those who didn't tough it out, said Farr, either went home because they were sick, or because they had a lacrosse game the next morning.

"But they stayed until 10:30-11 p.m.," she said.

At first, said Farr, the other students weren't too excited about sleeping in the cardboard boxes, but once they were out there, "they were champs."

Farr and Lacasse have also managed to raise between $200 and $300 to support the area's homeless, and according to Farr, most of the money was raised during school lunches and from the overnight event alone.

But Farr said that she and Lacasse are still in the process of trying to raise money.

"I definitely think that it is something that people should be more aware of, and it's something that I'm glad we did for these students," said Farr.

According to Farr, while sleeping in cardboard boxes isn't the reality for most homeless people, it was still a neat experience to have.

"In many cases, it's not what goes on around here," said Farr. "It's more like sleeping from couch to couch, and not having one place to go home to. I am very glad that we went this route, and were able to raise awareness and let people know that it's an issue within our school and not just in big cities, where you see people begging for money."

Lacasse said that, just in the high school alone, 19 students are homeless; districtwide, there are 44, and half of them are in elementary school.

The project, he says, has made him appreciate what he has.

"It was so new that, when you have a house, and live in the comfort that many people do, how often do you consider these types of things?" he said.

"It was to show the people that saw us that homelessness is here at the high school. It was magnificent, because it was much more effective than we could have hoped for.

"What we hope to achieve is that, someday, children won't need to suffer not having houses, or not having things that they shouldn't have to live without."