It’s always darkest before the dawn, and it’s always bleakest before the cash comes in.
A small group of St. John’s Anglican Church parishioners recently raised $10,400 for the Lookout Emergency Aid with the Long, Long Night of Hope sleep-out.
The seven sleep-deprived Good Samaritans raised money through social media by volunteering to sleep in their cars or in the church the night of Feb. 25.
“I had a feeling I wasn’t going to sleep very well and I was right,” said Donna Lawrence, estimating she enjoyed two hours of shuteye. “The night was amazing.”
Lawrence said she opted to spearhead the event after realizing how slight the separation is between her and the people’s she’s helping.
“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.”
After gathering in the church for songs and support in the midwinter evening, the lights went out and Lawrence closed the door on her bedroom: a Nissan Rogue SUV.
But even in a comparably spacious vehicle the experience was a bit of an awakening, according to Lawrence.
“It was eye-opening that people live like this every day,” she said.
She’d brought along a romance novel to while away the wee hours but found she was uncomfortably attuned to her surroundings.
“You hear every footstep of every person,” she said. “Every time there was some kind of a noise I woke up.”
Lawrence had packed the Nissan with every blanket she owned but as the temperature hovered around 0 C, she found it impossible to get warm.
“How does somebody do this and survive?” she asked.
The Lookout Emergency Aid Society has been dealing with that question a lot, according to North Shore shelter manager Bailey Mumford.
The shelter is increasingly being forced to turn away families, women, seniors and young people, according to Mumford.
“Turn-aways are definitely on the rise … that’s just because of a lack of affordable housing stock right across the board for all demographics on the North Shore,” he said.
Mumford said he was “blown away” the event raised more than $10,000.
“I told Donna she should be moving into a job in fundraising,” he said.
The money will hopefully go toward a second North Shore Lookout site, according to Mumford.
“Whether that’s housing or what it looks like we’re not sure yet,” he said.
Beyond the cash, Mumford said he was grateful Lawrence and her fellow parishioners shone light on the issue of homelessness.
“It focused on raising awareness about people sleeping on cars which is definitely something we see a lot of,” he said, explaining many homeless people on the North Shore are couch surfing or spending nights in parking lots. In the parking lot outside St. John’s Anglican Church, the car doors swung open at about 8 a.m. and the volunteers piled into the church following their long night.
“There was already coffee on, thank goodness,” Lawrence says.
Lawrence had been hoping 20 volunteers would take part, and that they would be from outside the church.
“The No. 1 thing we wanted to do was take the pressure off the actual parish,” she said.
While the event was short on volunteers, those few volunteers managed to exceed the fundraising target. The Long, Long Night of Hope officially ends March 15 but Lawrence suggested it might become an annual event.
“My immediate thought was: Just think what we can do next year.”
