Students help homeless by sleeping in boxes

After being delayed earlier this month due to cold weather, Hahnville High School’s “Sleep in a Box” event will finally take place Thursday, Jan. 28.

This is only the second year that the Student Council has held the event, but students say interest in it has increased a lot since last year.

Kristen Boudreaux, a teacher at Hahnville and a Student Council sponsor, said that last year’s goal was to get people interested. This year, they hope to raise more money.

“Last year we raised $750. We only required a minimal fee so that we could build up interest in the event,” Boudreaux said. “This year, we charged a little more.”

The money raised last year went to Covenant House, a charity shelter for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth 16 – 21.

This year, the money will go to Invisible Children, an organization that makes documentaries about children in east Africa and tour them around the world to raise awareness about the situation there.

Boudreaux said they plan to choose a charity that deals with homeless people.

The event is aimed not only at raising money for charities, but also at raising awareness about homelessness.

“The point is to know what it feels like to sleep outside,” said senior Shelli Brou who participated in last year’s event.

Last year there were many failed attempts to build box-houses. Some students say they have learned their lesson and predict more successful attempts to decorate boxes.

“Last year, it was a disaster,” said junior Kayleigh Eppling, who will be decorating a box for this year’s event. “But we learned that if you paint the boxes, they stay up.”

During the event, which takes place on the Hahnville High football field, the space is divided between the girls and boys – with absolutely no mixing.

The council aims to hold the event soon after the winter holiday ends, but this year it didn’t work out that way.

“We try to hold it the first Thursday that we’re back from the school holidays because we future teachers won’t be too deep into their new material and the students could slide with one ‘sleepy’ day,” Boudreaux said.

She said the event takes five months to plan, so doing it earlier is not an option.