Sometimes it takes a dark night of the soul to find hope.
In a bid to raise money for the Lookout Emergency Aid Society, Donna Lawrence and a few dedicated do-gooders are planning to spend one midwinter evening chasing sleep in the parking lot outside St. John’s Anglican Church at 220 Eighth St. in North Vancouver.
“One night sleeping in your car or sleeping on pews in the church could make a difference to so many people,” says Lawrence, the organizer and first entrant of the Long, Long Night of Hope.
“I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to be part of this,” she says. “I’m a single mom, I don’t have a ton of money … but to me it’s by the grace of God and the grace of my family and friends that I am not homeless.”
The idea’s inception came about one year ago when some St. John’s parishioners expressed concerns the church wasn’t doing enough for the community.
Not long after, Lawrence stumbled on The Longest Night, a Peel, Ont. fundraiser for the United Way.
“I put it away in my mind for a couple of months, but it kept coming back and bugging me,” she says, laughing.
While the church was quick to come on board, Lawrence didn’t want the Long, Long Night of Hope to be an insular affair, like one of those bake sales where the same people do all the baking and all the buying.
“That’s not really getting out into the community,” Lawrence explains. “The No. 1 thing we wanted to do was take the pressure off the actual parish.”
Discussing the event, Lawrence invokes the folk tale of Stone Soup, in which the small contributions of the multitudes create a delicious meal everyone enjoys.
“If everybody puts a little bit of something in, you’re going to have a magnificent result.”
Despite her enthusiasm, Lawrence acknowledges that: “creating a fundraiser from scratch was an overwhelming task.”
After getting the support of St. John’s parishioners for the use of the church and parking lot and establishing a page on CanadaHelps.org, Lawrence is now trying to recruit a contingent of kindness. At press time, five entrants volunteered to spend a February evening outdoors. However she’s hoping a total of 20 volunteers can raise $500 each, adding up to $10,000 for Lookout.
Speaking to City of North Vancouver council in December, Lookout Society’s North Shore manager Bailey Mumford, described the homeless multitudes often hidden by the region’s affluence.
“Homelessness is on the rise on the North Shore and we’re seeing a huge influx of women, seniors and, interestingly, families,” he says. “We’re been turning away between one and three families a month from the shelter … because we don’t accommodate children.”
Lawrence says she hopes the money raised will go towards helping women, children and families who are homeless.
The Long, Long Night of Hope officials begins with registration at 8 p.m.
“Our hope is that they have a good night’s sleep – but if they don’t, our hope is that they’re going to broadcast their experience on social media and really build that knowledge of what it’s like to be sleeping in your car in the middle of the city on a cold winter night,” she says.
Besides raising money, Lawrence says she wants the event to engender a little more compassion and a little more consciousness about what some people face
every night.
After Lawrence pledged to risk a cold, sleepless night, she received a donation from Ontario – from someone she’d never met – who said they were touched by Lawrence’s story.
At press time, Lawrence had raised $600 for Lookout.
“It’s already spreading,” she says.
With less than three weeks until the long night, Lawrence is hoping some fresh recruits volunteer to spend the night in the parking lot.
“You don’t have to be involved with the church, you don’t have to be Christian. We will accept everybody,” she says. “It’s something that doesn’t take any talent whatsoever. You’re not biking for 30 miles, you’re not walking or running, you’re sleeping in your car. You’re going to be sleeping anyway,” she adds.
The long night is scheduled to be followed by a continental breakfast and a morning service celebrating the fundraiser.
For more information visit: canadahelps.org/en/charities/the-parish-of-st-john-the-evangelist-north-vancouver/the-long-long-night-of-hope-2017
