Youth live in 'Box City' for the homeless

Media – On Friday evening, May 18^th, youth and adults from Trinity Lutheran Church of Havertown, along with youth from other Havertown churches, will give up the comforts of home for a night to sleep outside in a box on the front lawn at Trinity Lutheran Church.   The “Box City” is an effort to raise awareness around issues of homelessness, to raise money for Community Action Agency of Delaware County, Inc.’s (CAADC) shelter system and for the youth to be educated on this topic through experiential learning.   

Trinity Lutheran Church is located at 1141 West Chester Pike in Havertown (right across from the Hess Gas Station).  Set up of the "city" will take place starting at 4:00 PM.  The youth will spend 4:00 to 6:00 creating their "box home" using large appliance boxes.  They will be "homeless" until Saturday morning at 11:00 AM.  The event will happen rain or shine.  The youth are allowed to bring one blanket or sleeping bag, must keep their electronics at home and are not to bring any food with them.  At 6:00 PM participants will have dinner served to them in a "mock soup kitchen".  At 7:30 there will be a speaker from CAADC talking about the problem of homelessness in Delaware County.  The community is invited to attend at that time.  The youth will also see a movie telling a true story of homelessness.

The event will give Havertown youth an opportunity to address issues of hunger and homelessness while having fun, meeting new people and working to raise community awareness.  Youth in 5^th grade through college are invited to participate.  Participating youth will donate $6.00 to reserve their box.  The registration fund will be donated to the Save Our Shelters (S.O.S.) Campaign for CAADC.  The S.O.S. Campaign is a cooperative effort between CAADC and the local faith-based community to raise funds for the Agency’s emergency shelters.  Youth are asked to get people to sponsor them for each hour that they will be homeless.  The hope is the community will be generous in supporting the youth and the dire need for funds for local homeless shelters. 

For more information on this event please contact Ann Shiffer of Trinity Lutheran Church at t.shiffer@comcast.net or 610-853-1484.