Every Thursday night is pub night on our campus - so in order to diffuse any sort of drunken issue, we made sure to keep the bongos and geetar going all night.

Around midnight, we were sitting around with some friends who had stopped by to jam with us.  Out of nowhere, we hear someone yell “get a job!” and then we all heard an explosion of snow.  No one realized what had happened until I started to cry.  This insolent individual had hurled a snowball at us - and by snowball, I mean a huge chunk of ice; and the explosion of snow was from the ice smashing right onto my face.  It caught me so off guard that I whipped my neck back in response - for those of you who don’t know me - I broke my neck on May 26th 2007.  Months later, I am still recovering, and sudden movements like that not only hurt me, but they scare me.  The neck & face pain, coupled along the scare upset me (and all of us) a lot.  What hurt us even more is that someone on our very own campus was despicable enough to do such a thing. 

Laurier - I read that something similar happened to you guys - I am appalled that this sort of thing happened at both of our sites.  This type of behavior is uncalled for and so unwarranted.  It breaks my heart to know that some homeless people are harassed verbally and physically with no means of defending themselves. 

TM stopped by again yesterday afternoon and she chatted with me about the impression that the general public have of the homeless.  “They see a homeless person on the street and they think, ‘good, you deserve to be there because it’s your fault.  You screwed up in life and this is the lifestyle that you have made for yourself.  Get a job ya bum’.  But it’s not their fault.  There are SO many reasons as to why they got there.  They could have lost a family member, gotten an illness, gotten kicked out, fired, or gone bankrupt.  If people had the compassion to even stop and ask, they would understand.  Who would choose such a lifestyle anyway?”

I am almost in tears sitting at this computer.  That snowball represented to me just how much it hurts to be misunderstood.  To be ignored.  To be ridiculed.  No one should have to deal with this.  I am honestly overwhelmed.  This has been such an eye opening experience for me and for that I am truly thankful.  I hope to god that people like our shameful snow thrower will one day come to even a fraction of that realization.  In the mean time, I am banking on the laws of karma.  What goes around, comes around.

d. 

Just wanted to send some Laurier pride over your way, as it is Laurier’s Open House today!  Could you think of a more awesome way to end of what has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life?  I know I couldn’t.

As I sit in the clubs office, preparing to face a group of prospective students with grades that are older than my great grandma, I find myself wondering what the group will think of me.  Take a second to ponder this thought:  a group of academically exceptional students are going to be faces with an un-showered, un-groomed, and sleep-deprived Laurier student who is supposed to convince them to enroll in my program.  Tough sell?  I’m starting to think not so much.  The amount of support, both on and off campus, towards our campaign has been more than I ever could have imagined.  Without words of criticism and negative feedback, communities in and around Laurier have banded together to raise over $5,000, in addition to food that is continuing to pile-up in our abode.  It makes me speechless.  Thus, I type.

Last night, which was literally our last night, had to be the highlight of this week so far.  Joining Evan, Jeff, and I were 3 brave souls from Little House Residence (they won the residence challenge of raising the most money - $300+), the Investment Club President, a dear friend of Jeff’s, and an amazing reporter from the Kitchener Record.  From singing along on guitars to eating our body weight in food, I can’t describe to you how strangely sad I was to be waking up knowing that my journey into a completely different life was coming to an end.  As Evan put it so nicely:  “In an extremely odd way, I’m going to miss our home”.  And that’s just it.  It has become our home.

Although I have to run off to impress all the aforementioned students, check out my blog again in a couple hours for a further heartfelt recollection of my homeless experience.

AND DONATE!  We need to blow $5,000 out of the water!!

Loves.

“Cc… cc… cc… hotel.” Ah mom, you’re a doll. Thanks for visiting, and letting me poke fun at your girliness. Oh, and big shout outs to my grandma (Baba)! She’s awesome and brought me some delicious treats.

So, for those of you avid readers of my blog (again, my mom): I apologize for today’s lacking posts. Honestly, I don’t think I can do this anymore. Between my 8:30am classes, group assignments being due mid-afternoon, dinners I had already RSVP’d to, prepping for Laurier Day, and giving 5158 interviews - I AM DEAD. I guess you could say today, I am definitely feeling the effects of one looooong week.

Firstly, our Dean of Business & Economics (Ginny Dybenko) slept out last night! Wow, talk about a riot. She was awesome, and to many people’s surprise, managed to stay out with us until 7:30am this morning! We spent the whole evening laughing (she is a great audience, laughs at all my jokes), eating, and chatting with the odd passerby. I think my favourite times were when Ginny was completely zipped up in her bag and we made her laugh. All you heard was “< giggle giggle > … < silence >” and some bouncing around her cocoon-like bag. Not too long after it turned into “< silence >” and no movement. We knew she was a goner at that point. Anyways, Ginny: THANK YOU! You really did make a huge difference in the campaign!

Well, ladies and gents, I can barely keep my eyes open. I cannot believe that tomorrow is our last day. Did I mention WE SURPASSED OUR $5000 GOAL!?!?!? WOOOOOOOO!!!! That moment, when we hit $5000, well.. that was really what solidified how much this campaign as officially accomplished. Go team.

I’m off to nap/snuggle with my boys, but I promise continuous updates tomorrow from homebase via blackberry. Love and kisses to all my loyal readers.

Soo…word on the street is people think I’m not looking too dirty. Well I have news for you. I am dirty so back off. Who stays clean after 4 days without a shower? As a matter of fact…

• I woke up this morning with enough wax in my ears to build a candle
• My hair had soo much grease in it that I could style the Italian Mafias hair for a month
• I could probably lube a 5 litre engine with the oil coming off my face
• I also realized sweat comes from more than 3 different parts of your body, a lot more
• and yes, the weird smell in the SBE clubs office is coming from Sam, Evan and I

So, next time you think I’m not that dirty, think back to this blog and be honest, I’m a dirty Mofo. It’s no Blue Steel, it’s Derelict.

“Grizzly Adams did have a beard” - Happy Gilmore

Homelessness is definitely not as chique as Mugatu’s fashion line Derelicte (sorry for the Zoolander reference… Jeff and I talked about it today, it rhymes, and I just HAD to say it).

But seriously, it is definitely going to rain and all of the cardboard on our makeshift bed is already really damp. I think we’ll have to go find fresh cardboard or else we will all get very wet tonight. Even though it is a lot warmer, I’d trade rain for a -20 degree night any day.

I’m starting to discover that the weather has a much larger impact on our moods than I had ever imagined. Even when you’re camping, you know that you have a safe, warm tent to go back to. Out here, I’m just trying to come up with ways to stay dry.

We were given a massively huge tarp yesterday, which will help out a lot, but there isn’t much to hang it from, or even much to make a lean-to out of. Perhaps if I find a few more wooden skids, we can fashion some sort of lean-to against the wall of the building. The thought of being cooped up under it all night doesn’t seem too appealing though.

Even though I know that it is our last night, the gloomy weather has put a huge damper on my mood. Grey skies just don’t do it for me. If the colour of the sky wasn’t bad enough, the more humid the air makes the cold bite harder.

I’m all alone in the pit right now, and it would be fair to say that I’m starting to feel a little depressed. To put that into perpective, I’ve only been alone for about an hour. A life alone out on the streets must be pretty unbearable.

I’m going to wrap it up now. We’ve got a reporter from the Kitchener Record coming in an hour or so to spend the night with us so I should probably fix up the bed and get all ready to deal with the rain.

Thanks to everyone for all of your support. It’s the only thing still driving me at this point. That and the need to be dry.

Cheers,
Ev

John Young asked me to take a moment tonight to reflect on the snowball incident of last night. He made an excellent point in our discussion this evening and I think that it is definitely blog worthy.

Last night while the masses were pouring out of the campus pub, some poor unfortunate soul decided it would be funny to toss a snowball into the pit to rattle us up a bit.

Without making any personal judgements about the fellow who decided to take this action, I wanted to outline the broader issue of harrassment and abuse that the homeless on our streets put up with every day.

A snowball is something of mere inconvenience; in many cases, it is hardly more than an alarming sound. But what about the other things? The verbal and physical abuse must be unbearable. Many homeless folks have to put up with being kicked, spat on, yelled at, and ridiculed.

I’ve been trying to write this blog for a while now and have been falling back asleep, so I think I’m going to wrap it up. Just please remember what these folks go through on a daily basis and be a little more considerate in the future.

Cheers,
Evan

She’s here!! Our wonderful Dean of the School of Business & Economics, Ginny Dybenko, has come to the pit (we’ve now dubbed our new home ‘the pit’). We’ve had an influx of other visitors stopping in to say hello.

John Young came by again to torment us about how tonight will be colder than last night. Several other professors came by as well, including Will McNally, Steve Farlow, and Leanne Hagarty, to wish us the best of luck tonight and to congratulate us so far on our campaign efforts.

Our VP Finance for the SBE Student Council came up from his co-op term in Toronto to say hello and drop off a care package. The Atrium magazine was also by bringing gifts for all of us. This is a small, random sampling of the numerous people that came tonight to show their support.

In my mind, tonight has been a celebration of business, social responsibility, and strength of community at Laurier. Not only does the Laurier School of Business & Economics pride itself on academic excellence, we are very proud to take a student centred approach to learning. This focus on students fosters a stronger bond between the students and the faculty, a bond which has been very visible over the past few nights.

I understand that I’m getting off topic from the 5 Days campaign, but I am just feeling very proud of how unique and caring our school is. We are truly lucky to be a part of such a great institution. Thank you all for your continued support of not only 5 Days for the Homeless, but of all of the SBESC’s and SBE Club’s initiatives.

Cheers,
Ev

P.S. A special shout out tonight to a very special lady, Laura Payjack in Winnipeg. Our few conversations over the past few days have made my nights much easier to deal with. Thanks to you and the rest of your team at Asper for an unreal weekend at the RoundTable conference in Edmonton. I miss you all very much!!

Wilfrid Laurier has raised $3852.67 of $5000, which is 77% of our goal for the campaign. Another important thing to mention is that tonight we have Ginny Dybenko, the Dean of The School of Business and Economics as our celebrity sleeping over this evening, hence the name of my blog “Money in Dybenko”.

If the awareness our campaign has raised could be measured in a dollar amount, our total would be well over the $5000 mark. I would like to take this moment to thank everyone who has made a food or money donation towards the campaign because they are the people who make this event worthwhile in the end. If one person who I have spoken with throughout the week approaches a person on the street feeling like they have a better understanding of what they are going through, then progress is already being made. Most importantly if people who have helped us out are able to take the same action and apply it towards helping a complete stranger who is homeless, we are already making a difference.

Thanks for coming out tonight Ginny, we appreciate your support. I’m sure it will be a riot.

“Money in the Bank” - Young Buck

Before I venture in to talking about the subject of this blog, I want to expand on what I talked about yesterday in my ‘Managerial Accounting vs. Sleep Deprivation’ blog.

Active listening is no longer an option. I just attempted to give my undivided attention to my professor’s lesson just now and I didn’t get more than 5 minutes into the lesson… Sorry Trent.

I’ve found that by constantly eating or blogging, I can keep myself busy enough to stay awake and I can still absorb a decent amount of information. Multi-tasking is the key to avoiding the effects of sleep deprivation… Unfortunately it’s also the cause of burn out.

If I had to keep this up any longer, I would completely fall apart. Food energy is the only thing keeping me going, and we all know that food energy is unfortunately not readily available out on the streets.

Back to the clarity of our message. I haven’t heard a single negative comment about this entire campaign. I’ve talked to some incredible people over the last three days about the issue and they all agree that something needs to be done. Many of them understand that the change starts when they pick up the phone and volunteer their time with lunch box and out of the cold programs. However, some still feel that donations alone will resolve the issue and that their contribution ends one the wallet opens.

I can’t stress enough that money alone will never solve big social issues like homelessness. We need to get ourselves out there to actually make the change happen.

A lot of the focus from the Laurier community and the media has been on us as students living “homeless” on campus. In response to the “how hard has it been” question, I often end my answer with “I still can’t even imagine what it would be like out there without this support network.”

In the end, this isn’t about us being homeless. It isn’t about making the most realistic experience. I find that having others contrast their lives and our experience and then continuing to contrast our experiences with the actual situation is the biggest shocker. This is all about motivating the community to help homeless and at-risk youth through active volunteering and continued monetary support of the organizations that serve them.

In other news, the Dean of the School of Business & Economics will be joining us tonight for another celebrity sleepover. We’re all very excited about it!!! I will blog later on tonight.

Cheers,
Ev

Mmmmm… Nothing warms you up faster than a damp sleeping bag!! Although I woke up a little colder than usual thanks to the wetter weather, I actually got a great sleep last night! Four whole hours!

I ate some breakfast that a friend had bought for us, bid farewell to our evening visitor, professor John Young, and went back inside for my paper towel and handsoap sponge bath.

Tip #1: electric hand dryers are key!! If you ever find yourself caught out in the cold, find a public washroom with an electric hand dryer. You can dry all your damp clothing and evaporate the thin layer of cold moisture on your skin with one of those things.

Now that I’m dry, I got back into my garbage bag shirt and skirt and am now safely (and warmly) back in bed. After a few more hours, I’ll likely take my sleeping bag in to do the same.

So my blog last night was fairly bitter. That’s why I figured out blogging on my BlackBerry. So often I have all of these terribly annoying experiences at night and lose all patience with the people around me. Every morning when I’d return inside to write, I’d put a positive spin on everything (this is a positive campaign after all).

To clarify last nights post. With the exception of one or two inconsiderate drunks, the night was very good and all of the Wilf’s crowd were very supportive of us. Thanks to you guys for: a) providing support when I was wet, cold, and grumpy, and b) providing more than enough entertainment! You are all much funnier than you think you are. Your insatiable appetites also helped us raise over $100 by selling Pogos outside the bar. Thanks!!

Thanks again to John and his class. They successfully raised just over $290 for the 5 Days campaign. We truly appreciate your efforts!

Next thought… We’re almost halfway to our fundraising goal!!! Incredible!! Not only are we doing well on the fundraising front, the awareness of the campaign is growing at a staggering rate! I hope that we can use this newfound awareness to get a few more people from the university and the community out to volunteer with the charitable organizations here in town.

I am going to try to grab a few more hours of sleep now.

Talk to you soon,
Ev