Sleep out so others can sleep in

By Marina Sanford

For nearly 200 people, sleeping in a shelter is a regular occurrence. Many have been doing it for years, and will continue to require the help of a shelter for years to come.

Because of the number of people going through the Belleville shelters, Our House, Our House Too, and Casa Tres, regular repairs and maintenance can become costly to those running the shelters. But there is a group of people who are trying to help out by spending a night outside.

The fifth annual Sleep Out So Others Can Sleep In will be held in Market Square this year. Elisha Coleman will be spending the night outside for a second year.

Coleman heard about the event from a friend, and decided she wanted to participate. In her first year, she raised $150 for the event, and hopes to get over the $200 mark this year.

“I put a thing on Facebook and pretty much everyone that I see or visit, I usually bring it up, and they start talking about how they could never do it. Well, I am, so if you want to sponsor me, instead of doing it yourself…”

Coleman missed last year’s event because she was pregnant, but plans to keep participating in the future. She said she is not concerned about the weather this year, but hopes to get a box as good as the one she had last year.

“I got a box from a funeral home and it was the right size. I didn’t have to make many modifications. Some kind of go all out. A guy that I knew had his box beside mine and he had this little lantern thing that he hung in the corner of his box, and it had a little candle in it. He didn’t even need his boots on. He was quite toasty in there!”

A new Sleep Out site will also debut this year in Bancroft. Sandie Sidsworth, the executive director of the Hastings and Prince Edward branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association will be sleeping out at the new location.

“It was time to make our presence known, just really reconnect with the community, so that seemed to be a great way to do it,” said Sidsworth. She is no stranger to the event either. Before she took over as the executive director, she participated in the event three times. Twice she was a sleeper collecting pledges, and fundraising in the community.

Last year, the event raised just over $8,000, which was a far cry from the almost $20,000 raised the year before. This year, organizers would like to raise $10,000 dollars between the two locations.

The money raised during the event is crucial to the shelters, because it is the only fundraiser held for the physical upkeep of the buildings. The rest of the money raised during the year goes toward programs the mental health association runs, said Sidsworth.

Last summer, the shelters received a helping hand from Home Depot in the form of a grant of $25,000 to refurbish bathrooms, window, and doors, to make them more environmentally friendly.

“Without that money, we couldn’t have been doing that work on the bathrooms that we needed to because the funds were down,” said Sidsworth.

There will be a number of guest speakers during the evening to help address the issues of homelessness and poverty, as well as music during the evening, provided by Scotty Lalonde, who is volunteering his time for the event.

Sidsworth asks that even if people aren’t interested in staying outside for the night, to help out in any way they can.

“There’s lots of ways to give without having to sleep out. Sponsor someone, come down and join us for a couple hours, but the most important thing is creating awareness. We all need to work together.”