Joan Hunter, who rides the bus to work and home, talks
about one of her clients at the Lancaster Office on Mental
Retardation while on her way to the Great Plains Winter
Sleepout Friday.
Hunter dons her third pair of socks at about 8 p.m. as the evening grows colder.
Sleepout
Continued from Page 1
now was doited with clumps of multi
colored blankets lhal moved on ly when
someone rose for a trip to one of 10
porta-potties.
"The homeless must use the
bushes,” Hunter said.
By 4 a.m., the temperature had
fallen to 26 degrees, and 120 people
remained. Four Red Cross volunteers,
one police officer and three Salvation
Army workers fought drowsiness to
keep watch over the sleeping crowd.
During the final two-hour stretch,
bodies began to stir. John Barrette,
business editor of the Lincoln Journal
and a director of the Gathering Place,
a homeless refuge, was one ol lhc first
“Everybody is responsible for (the)
a homeless, not just the government,
Barrette said. “But I’m less attracted
to government solutions; they often
take dignity away.”
The Gathering Place offers food
and hospitality toanyonc, not only the
homeless, he said. Speakers and pro
grams arc offered to the public at noon
daily.
Curt McConnell, a Lincoln author
and former reporter, said he was sur
prised and pleased by the crowd that
remained Saturday morning.
Lincoln has an evident homeless
problem, he said.
“I sec some people around who I
know arc homeless,” he said. “You
see the same guys hanging out in the
public library day after day, going
back and forth between downtown
and the city mission, that aren’t
ting a whole lot of help.”
Larry Schneider of Lincoln spent
the evening at the slccpout. He said he
fell compassion for the homeless, and
had once sheltered a homeless man in
his home.
Hunter said he thought being home
less was “like imprisonment in a war
camp.”
“Instead of being locked in, you’re
locked out,” he said. “You keep won
dering when the endless routine is
going to end.”
Hunter said the slecpout reminded
her of the painful routine she got a
taste of when she was homeless in
Seattle.
“When they came by and said there
was orange juice and coffee, you felt
thankful for any little thing they wanted
to give you,” she said.
Vl\/ » . I ” IUAIIIV IVIV/UI Ml.rv TU' • ■ piwi
a night of homelessness, camping out
in a cardboard box. She insulated
herself against the cold with a blueski
mask, snow pants and bools.
Moul said the slccpout gave her a
new appreciation for the homeless.
“The best learning experience was
people gelling together having com
mitment to public awareness on prob
lems of (the) homeless,” she said.
‘‘The speakers dispelled myths that
people have about the homeless. It
can be people from all walks of life —
women and children, as well as men.”
At 7 a.m., after feasting on warm
doughnuts, the participants rolled up
their sleeping bags and began filter
ing out of Centennial Mall.
Leonard remained standing by a
cement wall, holding his tattered bed
roll over his shoulder.
Locals join sleepout
to support homeless
By Corey Russman
Staff Reporter_
More than 130 people left the com
fort of their homes and braved below
freezing temperatures Friday night to
increase awareness of Lincoln’s home
less.
Many spent the night in boxes,
others in their sleeping bags, and some
covered up with newspapers as they
participated in the Great Plains Win
ter Slecpout, an event to raise money
for Lincoln organizations that help
shelter, feed and clothe the homeless.
More than $25,000 was raised dur
ing the evening. Dave Murrell, chair
man of the slecpout, said the Peoples
City Mission, the Freeway Youth Sta
tion and the Friendship Home each
would receive 20 percent of the pro
ceeds.
About 30 percent will go to five
other organizations that help the home
less. The final 10 percent will be
given to the Lincoln/Lancaster Home
lcssCoalilion,compriscdof30groups,
to pay for the organization of next
year’s slecpout, Murrell said.
Nearly 3,000 families and single
men in Lincoln will become homeless
during 1992, he said.
About 550 people attended the
educational segment of the slecpout
from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. The Lincoln
Community Playhouse performed
skits for the crowd. Entertainers also
“«
We need to increase
awareness to help
bring this plight to an
end.
Maxine Moul,
Lt. Governor
-ft -
sang songs, and many told of their
experiences of being homeless.
Lt. Gov. Maxine Moul, a speaker
at the slccpout, said she hoped the
evening would be a “commitment to
the homeless and near-homeless in
Lincoln.”
“We need to increase awareness to
help bring this plight to an end,” she
said.
Moul told participants about Gov.
Ben Nelson’s commitment to helping
the homeless, and spoke of LB 1192.
The 1991 bill increased the price of
documentary stamps for real estate
transactions by 25 cents.
The bill will raise nearly SI mil
lion over two years, Moul said* The
money generated will be used to build
shelters and will go to organizations
that help the homeless.
Moul quoted anthropologist Mar
garet Mead, who said, “Never doubt
that a small group of committed citi
zens can change the world,” In fact,
Moul said, sometimes they arc the
only ones who can.
Moul said the night represented a
“genuine increase of awareness and
education across the state, not only in
Lincoln.”
The night was beyond what she
expected, she said. People arc begin
ning to take the homeless situation
seriously, she said.
Golden Key National Honor Soci
ety students and UNL student-ath
letes presented 400 cans of food and
250 items of clothing that were do
nated during their food and clothing
drive two weeks ago.
Debbie Dcdrick, vice president of
Golden Key, said the homeless issue
had never been tackled, and the Uni
versity of Ncbraska-Lincoln campus
seemed to be removed from the prob
lem.
ucarick, a senior pre-mea major,
said she hoped the sleepout would
show that nobody was immune to the
problem.
“We are all affected by it cither
directly or indirectly,” she said.
Troy Branch, a Nebraska football
player, said the sleepout was a “step in
the right direction to nip the (home
less) problem in the bud.”
Branch, a senior history major,
said he believed people w ere ignorant
of the homeless. Some assume people
are homeless because they don ’ t work
hard enough, he said, which is not
true. In reality, Branch said,everyone
is one or two paychecks from being
homeless.
Branch said he hoped the sleepout
would show that homelessness could
happen to anyone.
Debbie Hoslcrt, a senior agricul
tural education major at UNL, said
many people “go through their daily
lives with complacency ana take
things for granted.”
“We need to have empathy for the
less fortunate,” she said.
Tam my Th icsscn, a sen ior account
ing major, said there were two types
of homeless: those that want to be
homeless and arc happy, and those
who don’t want to be and arc lonely.
Thiessen said she didn’t believe
the homeless problem was invisible,
just that people ignored it.
Steve Naumann-Sandoval, a UNL
graduate student in school psychol
ogy, said he participated in the sleepout
to support a good cause.
“I needed to get involved, and this
is my opportunity,” he said.
Naumann-Sandoval said he wanted
to experience what it was like to be
homeless and bring about an aware
ness that the homeless problem was
real. He said he hoped to take what he
learned during the evening and tell
outers aoout nis experiences.
Organizers of the event stressed
that the night was not typical of how
a homeless person would spend the
night. Slecpoul participants were able
to cal pizza, cold sandwiches and
could have coffee, tea or hot choco
late. The Salvation Army served the
drinks and food.
Several other Ncbraskacities, such
as Omaha, Lexington and Hastings, '
also had events in conjunction with
the slecpoul, Murrell said. Cities in
Missouri, Kansas and Iowa also par
ticipated in the regional event.
This year’s event was the second
annual slecpoul in Nebraska, Murrell
said. Last year, he said, Omaha had a
slecpoul, and its success prompted
Lincoln to have its own this year.
Murrell said he hoped Lincoln
would continue to have a sleepout
‘‘year after year so that we can even
tually wipe (the homeless problem)
out.”
Sleepout participants snooze on the grass at Centennial Mall bundled in their sleeping bags at about 4 a.m.
Hunter gets some warm doughnuts for breakfast from the Salvation
Army canteen.
While actors perform a skit on the stage, Hunter turns in for the night.
Photos by Michelle Paulman
After a cold night sleeping on the ground, Hunter warms her hands in a parking garage.
