It was the time of night when any sound – tires squealing, wind howling – is as jarring as breaking glass.
At that time of night, according to Lynnmour resident Annika Treffner, you get a little understanding of what life is like for the kids who spend every night on those streets.
Treffner was one of 51 mothers, including five from the North Shore, who bundled up in a sleeping bag, grabbed a piece of cardboard and spent May 4 sleeping on the sidewalk at 575 Drake St. in Vancouver to raise money for Covenant House.
“I was very mindful for how difficult life would be for any kid on the street,” she says, emphasizing the vulnerability of girls on the street. “It must be horrific, absolutely horrific to be in that situation.”
While she was safe among likeminded mothers, she found herself thinking about the dearth of options faced by the approximately 1,300 kids living on the streets who are helped by Covenant House each year.
Covenant House estimates between 500 and 1,000 young people living on the streets of Vancouver, where they’re vulnerable to sexual exploitation, drug abuse and illness.
At press time Treffner had raised $3,980. The event raised approximately $174,000.
The sleep out event is critical for an organization that gets 94 per cent of its funding from approximately 57,000 individual donors.
“Many youth are re-victimized on the streets, having fled one unsafe situation only to find their circumstances are often worse,” according to a release from Covenant House.
This is Treffner’s second year participating in the sleep out. She’d donated to Covenant House before, but she was moved to get more involved two years ago.
“I really wanted to do something a little bit more hands-on,” she says.
She got to meet the Covenant House staff in 2016, who she describes as respectful, loving and kind. She was equally moved by the kids.
“They could easily have been my children if something had possibly gone wrong,” she says. “If I could adopt them all and make them my own I would’ve, and so that’s why I never became a teacher.”
But she also saw how leery the children can be of adults. It’s not surprising when you consider that their experience has been shaped by adults they can’t trust, Treffner explains.
“I feel compelled to reach out and try to give these kids an opportunity to become the amazing human beings that they’re capable of being,” she says. “They truly are our kids.”
To help those kids, Treffner also spearheaded her own fundraiser, organizing a recent event at the Sunrise assisted living facility in Lynn Valley where her parents live.
With Sunrise donating food and beverages, Treffner’s old-Hollywood themed fundraiser generated a little more than $400.
“People are very willing to get on board,” she says.
In the morning after the sleep out, the bleary-eyed mothers were asked to use one word to describe their night. The most common words chosen, according to a release from Covenant House, were: gratitude, vulnerable, blessed, love, resilience and family.
For Treffner, the night was a beginning of a larger movement.
“Picture your mother, who is totally dialled into a cause … and how she then proceeds to tell all of her friends, family and neighbours about this,” she says. “We are a force to be reckoned with.”
It’s a “warm, powerful feeling” to give back to the youth, Treffner says.
Asked if she’ll bed down in a sleeping bag again next year, Treffner’s answer is unequivocal.
“I’m a lifer,” she says. “I’m going to be that 100-year-old grandmother out there on the streets in the next 45 years.”
To donate to Treffner or any of the mothers who participated in the sleep out, visit covenanthousebc.org.
