A record 250 Stepinac High School students slept in cardboard boxes on their White Plains campus Wednesday, Nov. 10, to raise money for the unsheltered homeless in Westchester County and New York City.
The students gathered at 7 p.m. and stayed until 8 a.m. to try to get a sense of what it’s like to have nowhere to go and no one to go to. The homeless, of course, don’t sleep on athletic fields on a familiar campus, specially lit for the media’s photo op, among friends, all of whom have brought blankets, pillows and sleeping bags from home after a hot, cooked dinner. But the students’ plucky 2021 BOX City campaign, for which supporters made individual pledges of $100, has nonetheless raised about $40,000, also a record for the event, as well as awareness that homelessness is one of the challenges that hasn’t gone away in the pandemic. Indeed, as with other issues, Covid has only underscored it.
It’s never too late to contribute. For more, visit http://www.stepinac.org/boxcity.
