Sleep Out in the Rock event called privilege by volunteers
Mandy Davis, co-chair of the Oct. 22 Sleep Out in the Rock, is quick to point out the event is not intended to give eventgoers an idea of what it is like to be homeless.
“You are not experiencing homelessness, it is one night of solidarity with those who are,” she says. “We recognize it’s even a privilege to sleep in a park.”
And she should know. She is the former director of Jericho Way — Little Rock’s day resource center for homeless people. She and her husband, Eddie, are co-chairing the event that raises money for the homeless center.
“There’s a lot of privileges going on here that we talk about and recognize while setting up the tents, building fires and roasting marshmallows,” she says while she and her husband sit at a picnic table in Murray Park where the event will take place.
Mandy says Jericho Way provides crisis services to Little Rock’s homeless population. “That means showers, meals, laundry. And, they provide tools to help people exit homelessness with case management. One of the major things that we did while I was there was build affordable housing.”
Jericho Way is a private/public partnership between the city of Little Rock and DePaul USA, a national homeless services nonprofit organization.
“The city pays a little under half the total budget, and we raise the rest through grants, individual giving, faith giving and then this fundraiser,” Mandy explains.
Jericho Way also feeds up to 42,000 meals a year, she says.
“So, it’s really important to us and really to the city’s most vulnerable. It’s the city’s only resource center for the homeless. That’s why it’s so important. Hundreds of people
go there a day,” she says.
Eddie, vice president of compliance for the southeast division of CHI St. Vincent, says it wasn’t difficult to say yes to being a co-chairman to an event that’s so important to his wife.
“The organization does have a mission that is easy to rally around. So when she asked if I’d be interested in sharing it [the chairmanship] with her, I mean, it was just a no-brainer, right? It’s an easy cause to support.”
Mandy — who went from being a staff social worker at the center to interim director, then director — says she feels privileged to serve as a co-chairman after seeing past chairmen who served. During her tenure as director, she helped launch the event.
Mandy says she had always heard fundraisers say “you have to spend money to make money.”
“I was like, that’s not true. That can’t be true, because we don’t have any money,” she says. “We can’t spend money to make money, we just need to make money.”
Defying the old maxim of spending money to make money, Mandy says, “I just said, ‘We’re going to do a sleep out. We give you nothing for your sponsorship. You get nothing but your logo on a website.’ It’s free for us to do. The food is donated.”
City Manager Bruce Moore allowed Jericho Way to use Murray Park for the Sleep Out. “He’s supported us every step of the way. So did [former mayor] Mark Stodola and now [Mayor] Frank Scott. We’ve always had the backing of the city.
“This is such a great way to raise money without spending money, and to be in solidarity with people who experienced this around the world, not just in Little Rock, right? So, it’s a night to sort of reflect on your privilege,” Mandy says.
In the past, she explains, “We’ve had people come out and sleep on cardboard. We’ve had people that come out and won’t sleep in tents. They really want to be in solidarity.”
By not spending funds on the event, all the money raised through sponsorships and donations goes to Jericho Way. “It goes into identification for homeless, clothing for the homeless. We opened a clothing closet, we opened an art program, we opened a medical clinic. We did all these things because we weren’t spending your money, but putting it all toward the people who are most in need.”
Attendees usually include scout troops, clergy, sponsors and regular volunteers. This year First Financial will provide food, the city of Little Rock will provide breakfast and the band The Going Jessies will provide entertainment.
“It’s really unique. We are kind of under that tree,” says Mandy, pointing to a large pine. “We listen to some music, we talk. The meals are usually small on purpose because shelter meals are small. And so then we go to bed, wake up and say ‘We made it through the night’ and go home.”
The event can be a real eye-opener for kids who participate. “A lot of them don’t even know what the word solidarity was before. But then they get it. They walk away more enlightened than they were before about a big topic.”
“It’s been interesting to watch this fundraiser grow over the years,” Eddie says. “The first year we were doing it, it had never been done here before. A lot of work had to go into setting up the infrastructure. To see where it’s come today and the amount of community support it has is just kind of unreal. There are a lot of people that come here year after year.”