New home for No Fixed Address a success
A new venue for the annual No Fixed Address event brought plenty of new opportunities along with it.
Perennial participant John Bedell — he has not just slept in his car each year as part of the fundraiser for the YWCA Niagara, he’s also volunteered and recruited friends to join him — saw the front lawn of General Motors’ St. Catharines plant as a quieter more secluded option than that of the previous Pen Centre parking lot site.
“I might actually get some sleep tonight,” he said with a little chuckle.
No Fixed Address, a 24-hour live-in-your-car-a-thon where people collect donations from sponsors, similar to a walkathon or marathon, but spend the night sleeping — or as Bedell put it, not sleeping — in their car, took place Friday and Saturday.
It was started to raise awareness and funds needed to help solve the rising problem of hidden homelessness in Niagara and to help people develop a deeper understanding surrounding the reasons behind why some people call their car home.
“I came out that first year and heard the stories of people who live through this,” Bedell said. “It’s one of the rare occasions where you get to separate yourself from your ordinary day to day life. You’re not just listening to the stories and then getting in your car and going home. You’re immersed in it for 24 hours.
While you’re in your car, not sleeping, you get the chance to really think about what you’ve heard.”
YWCA Niagara’s executive director Elisabeth Zimmermann said roughly 100 participants came out this weekend.
The event raised just more than $35,000. The funds will be used to support YWCA Niagara’s shelters for homeless women and children, which have been running at 110 per cent occupancy for the past two years.
While demand has gone up at the shelters, Zimmermann said government funding has remained the same.
“There is a high demand for our shelters and it’s not lessening. We’re not able to fill the need,” she said. “With no additional funding, we have to absorb the increased costs.”
That makes fundraisers such as this one all the more important, she said.
GM came on board to offer up its parking lot and park area on Glendale Avenue. Zimmermann said it’s allowed the event to reach a new audience — including GM workers.
GM kicked things off Friday with a donation of $5,000.
Other partnerships this year, including one with Seaway Mall that saw YWCA Niagara’s cardboard house set up in the Welland shopping centre, also helped attract new faces.
Savannah Duggan, for example, saw the house while at the mall with her family and she immediately asked her mom if they could participate.
The Grade 4 Plymouth Public School student was surprised to read statistics about children in poverty and the number of kids who occupy shelter beds.
The young girl went home that night and wrote a letter, which she shared with her class, explaining what she was doing, and began collecting donations. Her brother, Brayden, who is in
Grade 2, also collected donations from his classmates.
Donations are being accepted until the end of next week at www.nfaniagara.com.