It has been a few days since the campaign ended and I have had some more time to reflect on the whole experience. Here is what I have come up with. Please bare with me as some of this may be regurgitation of things I have written in the past…

Many of my thoughts have stemmed from one particular issue that I noticed during the 5 days. The more real  we tried to make our experience outside as participants, the more support we got from our peers and the community. This added support, in turn, made the experience even less real than what it had been before we tried to be hard on ourselves.

I have been thinking about this phenomenon for a while and I think it comes down to perception. We were the benevolent do-gooders (if you will) trying to make things right in the world. In our society, there is never enough support for these people. They often attain celebrity status for championing change. On a local level, each one of the 5 Days participants became an overnight celebrity, taking interviews almost daily and appearing on the radio, television, and in newspapers. Furthermore, perfect strangers would not even blink when they brought us home cooked meals at night or hot coffee in the morning.

But what about our friends on the streets who have come on hard times and, often by no fault of their own, have nowhere to turn? Why do we paint them with such a harsh brush even though we know so little about them? Too often we use predetermined perceptions to push these people away, leaving them out in the cold without the compassion that so many strangers shared with me in the past week.

Ask yourself why. I still have not been able to answer that question. I cannot account for my past actions (or rather, inaction) and I would be willing to bet that you would have a hard time explaining yourself too. So why keep ignoring the issue? Next time you see a person sitting on the street on your way to Starbucks, pick up an extra hot drink and sandwich. I am not asking you to open your wallet and blindly throw money around when you cannot tell how it will be spent. I am asking you to bring that toque and scarf you never wear to someone who looks cold. I am asking you to save your Roll Up the Rim winners for the fellow downtown that you walk by everyday. It really is that simple.

If we all took the time to do this just once a week, we would have the best fed, best dressed, and ultimately best supported homeless population in the world. We all saw how moved I was by the support of my community; now imagine what kind of impact a large, constant outpouring of support for the homeless would have. Something as easy as one random act of kindness each week could spark a massive positive change in our community.

Even better, connect with your community’s social programs. Volunteer your time to help make a difference in the lives of everyone around you. From youth reading programs, to minor hockey, to homeless shelters, to meals on wheels, there are thousands of people in our community that can use a hand. These social support programs are here to enhance the lives of our fellow citizens and to strengthen our community as a whole. Who knows when you might find yourself in need of these services. It could be something as common as your son or daughter starting to play sports or something as devastating as you losing your job and your home.

Think of it as insurance. You will likely invest more than you will ever get back. Some people may need more or less help than others, that is the nature of the world we live in. But the point is that when you need somebody to lean on, your community will be there with open arms and you cannot put a price on that. When you volunteer your time and effort to help others, you are strengthening that support network that connects us all as members of this community. Furthermore, your actions and the collective action of your community will set a precedent for the way that people will treat each other in the future. This means that every little thing you do to improve the world you live in will have a lasting positive effect on the generations to come.

I know it may be hard to believe, but I basically just defined the word community for you in a rather convoluted manner. No more, no less. Instead of reading that very long rant, you could have looked up the word community in the dictionary and come to the exact same conclusion about the need to become involved and give back. “Sharing, participation, and fellowship,”  as per definition 1-f  in the American Heritage Dictionary. As citizens of our community, we are bound by the very definition of community to give back.

However, getting involved is a lot harder than you might think. I have realized that it is quite difficult to find an organization that I can really connect with simply because the information about volunteer opportunities is so scattered. As a student who has often wondered how to become involved in the community, I have found it next to impossible to find any listings that could be even remotely described as comprehensive.

I am planning to use all of this positive hype surrounding 5 Days and my position as Vice President of External Relations for the School of Business & Economics Student Council to put together a listing of volunteer opportunities in Waterloo Region for use by ALL students at Laurier. Not only do I want to connect students to these social programs in the region, I want to showcase where our students are at work by tracking our involvement in the community.

Laurier is well known as being one of the more active campuses in Ontario when it comes to student groups and volunteering, but we do not actively encourage and motivate our students to volunteer by recognizing and celebrating our current community outreach volunteers and initiatives.

It is time to change our perspective. It is time to shake things up. I can reach over 3,000 business and economics students with the click of a button and more than 10,000 students with a couple emails. It has never been easier to connect Laurier students with their community.

If ever there was a time for us to step up, if ever there was a time to make a difference in the city that has given us so much, the time is now.

Laurier, let’s show the world what we’re made of… GO HAWKS GO!!!!

2700 prospective students and their parents are coming to campus today. The university’s administration are really excited about the campaign and are pumping up 5 Days to all of the visitors! It is incredible that the entire school has embraced this campaign and I feel that our main goal of awareness has been a raging success. Not only that, we surpassed our goal of $5000 late last night.

We, as participants, are so proud of our organizing committee and our students, faculty, and administration for all of their support!

After speaking with so many people today, I have come to realize how successful this campaign has been across the country! I want to send a big congratulations out to all of the teams in our ten cities and the national organizing committee!! You’ve done a great job and you should all be very proud!

I am going to go keep talking with people out here. I’ll write again a little bit before our closing ceremonies at seven tonight.

Cheers,
Ev

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!!

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

It’s snowing… Needless to say, the wet got through my sleeping bag before I got my hands on garbage bags and a makeshift tarp. So I’m lying in my damp sleeping bag with a plastic tarp over top of me and wearing garbage bags to keep my clothes as dry as possible.

We’re sleeping right in the middle of campus, directly below the campus pub and it is very loud tonight. Because I am slightly less than dry, it would be fair to say that I’m in a pretty foul mood. Although most of the bar’s patrons are very pleasant and supportive there are a decent number of drunken idiots out tonight. Running on such little sleep, I must admit that my patience is beginning to run low.

The good news is that it’s much warmer than the past two nights and I’m exhausted. Hopefully I can fall asleep soon. With any luck, I’ll still be mostly dry in the morning.

Nite nite,
Ev

P.S. Some inconsiderate jerk just threw a snowball at us. Lovely… Shake it off… Shake it off.

Weather network says that it should be warmer tonight, but the humidity has shot through the roof and the cold is really starting to bite through. Looks as if we might get some rain or snow tonight as well. I’m not sure what it’ll be like. I’m sure our friends in BC have been dealing with this all week!!

On the bright side, we have another visitor tonight!! One of our accounting professors, John Young, is here to spend the night with us. John might be one of the funniest people I have ever met, so I’m sure there will be plenty of laughs this evening.

Our organizing committee will also be selling Pogo’s outside where we’re sleeping to the bar crowd tonight. Hopefully we’ll raise a fair bit of money!

Time to go. I will write again tonight when I wake up shivering!!

Cheers,
Ev

Don’t get me wrong, I actually quite enjoy managerial accounting. But I’ve noticed today that one of the hardest parts of my day is staying awake in class. The cold at night is a huge challenge, but you really have no other choice but to deal with it.

However, efficiency and effective budget variances are not exactly exciting enough to keep my undivided attention. As soon as I get into the heat, sleep deprivation kicks in and it takes every fibre of my being to stay awake.

You’d think a guy who spends almost half of the day in his sleeping bag would be pretty well rested, but I’m luck to catch even an hour of uninterrupted sleep at night. My energy levels are so low, even though I’ve been eating quite regularly (thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to bring us food so far this week). Without food, I would be completely useless right now. My body is weak, my eyelids are heavy, and my mind is sluggish. Even the smallest things seem to feel like the world’s most arduous tasks.

Managerial accounting vs. sleep deprivation… Accounting is winning so far, today. We’ll see who wins the battle again tomorrow.

Time to head back out into the cold. Thanks again to everyone for all the moral support. I am very lucky to have such a phenomenal support system behind me with my family, friends, and peers all ready to lend a hand when it is needed. It’s that security net that keeps me going right now and I’m starting to realize that the organizations like the ones we support, KW ROOF and the Argus Residence for Young People, are some of the few that are there to catch our homeless and at-risk youth when they need support.

Cheers,
Ev