October 9, 2001

The Calvin College Social Justice Committee will team with the Service Learning Center and the Visual Arts Guild to host an overnight homeless awareness event on Wednesday, October 10.

Students will create makeshift shanties of cardboard and other materials for an overnight shelter. From about 7 p.m. to midnight there will be speakers, who will educate students on the issues of homelessness nationally and internationally, as well as musicians and storytellers.

Says student organizer Luke Hamstra (above): "The main objective is to create a catalyst for thought and action about the problem of homelessness. The shantytown will serve as a visual symbol of homelessness for all involved. Sleeping on the Commons Lawn is certainly nothing like what it means to be truly homeless. But our hope is that the shantytown will give students an opportunity to understand and empathize with the homeless."

The tentative schedule is as follows:

7 pm == speaker from Inner City Christian Federation
7:30 pm == speaker from Salvation Army
8 pm == speakers and musicians from Heartside Ministries
9:30 pm == speaker from Mel Trotter ministries
10 pm == talk by Calvin professor Lisa Schwander
10:30 pm == discussion
11 pm == music by Calvin band Hometown Seoul
Midnight == Prayer and reflection on homelessness
12:30 pm == Students invited to stay overnight on the lawn

Contact Phil de Haan
616-957-6475 (v)
616-957-7069 (f)
dehp@calvin.edu