EAST Project To Help Homeless

STUDENTS TO SLEEP OUTSIDE TO EXPERIENCE THE DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES

PRAIRIE GROVE — Students in Prairie Grove Middle School EAST classes hope to experience a little bit of what it means to be homeless by camping out overnight Sept. 28 on the high school baseball field.

The campout is part of a project by the EAST classes to raise awareness for the homeless in Washington County and to benefit a new homeless organization called “Pack Your Bags.”

The Prairie Grove EAST Lab has challenged the EAST programs at Farmington to also collect items for the organization and three ninth graders have agreed to take on the challenge at the high school.

Tracie Ashley, EAST facilitator in Prairie Grove, said her students have helped Seven Hills Homeless Shelter in the past and decided to help “Pack Your Bags” because the organization was started by the stepsister of a Prairie Grove seventh grader.

“Pack Your Bags” does not provide shelter to the homeless but tries to meet their immediate needs.

University of Arkansas students Devin Gabbard and Brittany Cato, who graduated from West Fork High School, started the new organization in March. They hand out bags of food to the homeless every Tuesday in the parking lot of Mama Dean's restaurant in Fayetteville. Once a month, they provide a hot meal for the needy.

Friday, Gabbard said the number of people who come each week varies from as few as 10 to as many as 60. According to the organization's website, Cato became concerned about the homeless when she saw the plight of a homeless veteran. After talking to Gabbard about her concerns, the two came up with their idea to provide bags of food to the homeless.

Gabbard said they've developed relationships with some of the people who show up almost every week for food. One man likes to sit with them, sing to them and tell stories, she said. Another woman had been living in a van for six months recently found a place to live.

She said many stay underneath bridges in Fayetteville. Others hang around a place called “the camp,” located on 19th Street in Fayetteville.

The experience has humbled them, Gabbard said.

“I live more frugally because I spend most of my money for these people. I definitely see people differently. We know there's more to the story,” she said.

She is honored by the EAST

project to benefit “Pack Your Bags.” Both college students plan to stay overnight to help the students learn more about being homeless.

Ashley said the kids will go through stations during the night. For example, they will have to wear donated clothes, whether they fit or not. Ashley noted that some of the clothes may be dirty. They may be sprayed with water to realize what it's like to have to sleep when it's raining or get up when it's foggy outside.

Ashley said if they go to the bathroom, they may return to their bed and find some items have been stolen. She said the students will have the option of creating cardboard rooms or sleeping on the ground.

“I want them to get a full idea of what it's like,” Ashley said.

The community is asked to donate either money or items to the project and these can be brought to the middle school office or to the Prairie Grove-Farmington football game on Sept. 28. Boxes also may be placed around town in local businesses for donations.

Donated items can include apples, oranges, peanut butter, bottled water, saltine crackers, tuna or chicken in fliptop cans, nonperishable snacks, cereal, pretzel and baby wipes. Hygienic products, such as toothpaste, tooth brushes, deodorant, bar soap and lip balm, are other items that can be placed in bags to hand out to the needy.