Have you ever spent a night outdoors? Have you known anyone who has? If not, Nelson CARES is inviting you to participate in an 80-city, nationwide fundraiser walk called the Coldest Night of the Year.
The February 21 event aims to raise awareness about what exactly it means to have to brave the elements daily.
“If you have a home to go to, if you have the ability to be comfortable and relax, you’ve got food and warmth and comfort—now imagine you life with none of that. You’ve got nowhere to do during the day and night, you’re exposed to the elements and trying to get into buildings like the library to get warm,” said student Ren Pinnegar, who is helping organize the Nelson CARES event as part of his nursing practicum.
“As a nurse I think it’s important for us to raise awareness that this is a part of health. It’s not so much about the house, but the effects a house has on people’s health. And it’s not just the one person who suffers, it’s the entire community.”
Event coordinator Beth Seed echoed his sentiment.
“The idea is to raise awareness around homelessness in our community, and to experience even a hint of what it’s like to be homeless in the winter. We wanted to bring together the community and raise funds for low-income housing,” she said.
“This is our first year organizing this walk. We hope to raise $25,000 to put towards the Room to Live campaign. We live in a very active, generous community and we’d love to see all of Nelson walking with us to reach our goal.”
Seed, who works in the local shelter, said she routinely meets struggling individuals from all over East and West Kootenay, and the people she assists come from a huge spectrum of backgrounds.
“There are individuals who are employed and contributing to the community, and just happened to get laid off. There are people a month away from losing their home, then they lose it. There’s family, youth, all different ages and genders,” she said.
“There really isn’t a face of homelessness and that’s a stigma we want to address.”
Student Jessica Laramee said another issue is the “invisible homeless”.
“There’s such a big population that are like ‘hey, can I stay at your house for a week?’ and if they can’t find someone they’re outside or at the shelter.”
Ideally Seed would like to see shelter occupants transitioned to low-income housing, but because there’s a shortage in the Kootenays, quite often that can’t happen.
“It’s really tough to find housing here because availability of low-income housing is next to nothing,” she said.
Organized by Nelson CARES, the non-competitive walk will be either 2, 5 or 10 km with multiple stops along the way and a chili meal at the end.
“Nelson has a pretty decent awareness because homelessness is around us all the time, but I think it’s amazing for us to come together as a community and say ‘this is what we want to do to move forward and give you some place safe to live’,” said Laramee.
Board chair Ron Little agreed.
“Many of us take for granted a stable roof over our heads. Yet many in our community struggle to make ends meet. Nelson CARES works to ease these struggles by providing low cost, safe, affordable housing. This is a concrete way to make a difference.”
There is a $25 entrance fee, which will be waived once you raise $150. Participants will also receive a free toque. They are currently looking for volunteers and sponsors to help with the event. For more information visit coldestnightoftheyear.org/nelson or contact Beth at 250-551-5092