DuPage County Youths to Participate in 'Sleep Out Saturday' for the Homeless

In 2012, DuPage Pads served 1,398 homeless individuals, 138 families and 236 children, a 39 percent increase from the previous year.

To raise money for Bridge Communities, an organization that helps more than 100 families in poverty each year, families and youth will participate in “Sleep Out Saturday” on Nov. 3 at about 75 sites in DuPage County. Sleeping in parking lots, yards and cardboard boxes, they’ll experience what some residents experience regularly.

Last year, Bridge Communities raised more than $130,000 as a result of Sleep Out Saturday, according to a press release from the organization. The money goes toward helping families with life-skills mentoring, financial counseling, employment training, tutoring and an auto repair and donation program.

Aaron Thompson, with about 40 of the students in his student ministry at First Baptist Church in Wheaton, will ask neighbors for money Saturday, before sleeping in the church parking lot.

On Halloween night, Thompson said students from the group distribute Sleep Out Saturday information in the neighborhood. On Saturday, they’ll follow up to collect donations.

Thompson’s focus in the student ministry this month is social justice. Teaching bible scripture about God loving people that others don’t—or don’t even see—Sleep Out Saturday is the perfect way to connect the scripture to the kids’ worlds, he said.

“Seeing the needs of those in our society—in our neighborhood—that are often overlooked is a core value of our ministry,” he said.

Asking strangers for money fits with what Thompson is trying to teach the kids, he said. “It gives kids the experience of asking for money, and how uncomfortable that will be,” he said.

He said the First Baptist group has raised from $1,000 to $2,000 in past years, and hopes to raise $2,000 Saturday.

To raise money, he said students have come up with creative ways to earn funds. He said a couple of students gave manicures to women in the church, and one student collected pocket change from her peers in school.

“It’s a bonding experience… (the) shared and mutual suffering of being outside in the cold tends to elevate a sense of community,” he said.

Other Wheaton churches that will participate include St. Matthew United Catholic Church, Gary United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church.

Sleep Out Saturday will kickoff at 7 p.m. Saturday with a rally in downtown Glen Ellyn, 505 Crescent Blvd.

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