[b]Sleepless in San Diego Event[/b]

A member of our Western Region Street Team will be sleeping out at this event to help raise awareness. She will be bringing MMH info with her. Please click on the link below for more information.

http://sleeplesssandiego.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=343257

Thanks Kristy for posting this. Unfortunately, due to the late notice of finding out about this event, I was unable to get a table. I hoped to tag onto my church's table, but the pastor did not call me back till late in the afternoon the day before the event. She responded that I couldn't hand anything out from their table without approval from the church board. Politics! I get it totally. But, it was disappointing. My two boys ages 9 & 7 and I were able to attend the event though. In less than a weeks time, we raised $405 dollars, $480 if you count our registration fees. The money will be shared by the San Diego Rescue Mission and it's non-profit partners of the event all staying here in SD. I didn't really see any organization there supporting just the youth. I was surprised. All of them help kids, but not "just the young adults" that we are hoping to support. The event was amazing though! We met alot of people with massive hearts trying to support the homeless in our area. There was alot of activities and tables to meet the different organizations and learn what they are doing here in SD. We were provided cots to sleep on for the night, simulating what is provided at homeless shelters. But, we were sleeping out in the open air for the night. And it was cold! What surprised me most was that it was already damp before we even laid down for the night. All of our belongings were damp. We slept with our winter coats, hats & mittens on. My boys and I had each brought a sleeping bag, pillow and a wool Mexican blanket in case we didn't get a cot. Thank God! Cuz we needed the blanket on top of us. It was cold! At two in the morning my seven year old woke me up. He had kicked off his sock in the sleeping bag and his foot was freezing. We had to pull apart the whole bag to find it. Then it was hard to fall back asleep. I laid there thinking of how the homeless do that every single night. My heart really ached for mothers out there with children that have to face that. The guilt and despair must be overwhelming. Unlike homeless people we were provided lots of entertainment. There were gospel choirs singing on the stage, people speaking for the cause and the main entertainer was this beautiful woman named Nova. She is a pastor's wife here in San Diego. Her voice is like an angel. Her music she labled as Indie for independant. It was kinda Christian, modern, rappish. Well, really alot like Jewel with a little bit of rap elements. The good parts, like the rythum without the foul language (LOL). She's hard to find on U-tube. But she was awesome. She wrote a song she dedicated to the event called "Do Something" And I'm sure you can imagine what she means by that. As we went to sleep that night, they played a movie. Some people stayed awake to watch, socialize, play cards ect. But we slept. We were awoke at 5:45 in the morning to the sounds of Jimmy Hendrix playing the star spangled banner. Homeless people don't get the luxury of sleeping in. Unlike homeless people, we were provided coffee, danish and fruit and we had an uplifting presentation of awards/Christian message. Afterwards, we were encouraged to gather our belongings (like a homeless person) and move on, go to our churches and praise God we have a home and a bed to go home too! Overall, it was an awesome experience. My boys and I want to do it again next year, but organize earlier so we can raise more money and hopefully set up a table of our own. Maybe by then we'll have a group of street teamers here in SD!!!

This was the the Fourth annual event here in San Diego. I'm betting this event could be duplicated in other large cities as well. Obviously, it's too large for just us street teamers, but if we partnered up with the bigger non-profits like the SD Rescue Mission. I'm sure it could be put together. I have to warn you though. Apparently the first year, they had the event at a large city park where homeless people frequent and the homeless people heckled the event. They yelled at the participants that they had no clue what it was like, ect. Of course, they were right. But they made some of the people uncomfortable. This years event was set up at Liberty Station which is a retired Navy base. The orgainizers set it up in the middle of a quad of bldgs and put fencing all around it. People entering were searched for dangerous items, ect. for everyones safety. It's sad they have to go to those lengths, but let's face it... homeless people don't have TVs and probably don't read the paper to understand the whole event. In any case, I definitely feel it's an amazing event to raise awareness and money in your areas.