When caught outside in winter’s bluster, wind howling and ice crunching under foot, most of us can withstand the momentary encounter with the brutal chill because we have a certain level of security. We know the season’s assault on our 98.7-degree vessels is only temporary as we pump gas into our cars or trudge between the vehicle’s cozy interior and a destination’s insulated warmth.
Knowing is its own form of security.
As Northwest Arkansas waits to see if forecasters’ hightech crystal balls are in tune with Mother Nature’s volatility, consider for a moment what uncertainty would feel like. What if you faced tonight’s bitter temperatures without knowing where you might go to escape into tolerable conditions? What if you might be considered one of the lucky ones if you could curl up in a sleeping bag rated for below-freezing temperatures?
Tonight in Fayetteville, if it goes off as scheduled, students from Fayetteville High School will again venture into the outdoors to sample what life might be like if their world didn’t include warm beds inside heated homes. The school’s Student Council annually participates in an annual homeless vigil, sleeping outside in cardboard boxes to increase awareness about homelessness and, in the process, solicit donations to help with the school’s Families In Transition program. Yes, there are students who are homeless or at risk of becoming so.
The overnight effort is all pretend, of course. These young people recognize it’s a gesture. The effort cannot replicate the experience of homelessness as long as the students have certainty that they can go back home and be welcomed, that they have a bed and food waiting on them, that this “homeless” encampment is only a temporary demonstration, not a fact of life. A chief reminder of the limitations of the empathetic effort is the possibility the event might be canceled if the threat of icy conditions persists.
But gestures count. As these students demonstrate their commendable drive to make a difference through their high school experience, they also create a mechanism for others to help a segment of the local population that can prove challenging to help.
We need such reminders of a population many don’t see. The chronically homeless are often mired in battles with mental illness, substance abuse or both. An unacceptable percentage of them are veterans whose lives have taken a terrible turn. And many more are people — including families with children — who may have worked out shelter needs for tonight but really cannot be sure whether those arrangements will last.
The students will be in a parking lot at the northwest corner of the high school starting at 5 p.m. today. Supporters of their cause can donate money, and they’ll also accept canned food for low-income or homeless students.
Another event also seeks money to help. The NWA Hope Center will conduct its annual Homeless for Christmas drive at Springdale First Assembly of God through 2 p.m. Saturday. A second location is at St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville from 7 p.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Sunday. People will be spending the night out in search of financial support to aid the homeless.