Sleepless nights: Two all-night events help homeless, ill children
The largest event is the Finale Celebration. Students gather to participate in the letter-writing campaign and meet St. Jude’s patients from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. They stay "Up ‘til Dawn" in honor of patients at St. Jude’s who have had sleepless nights fighting cancer and other diseases.
Board members host Up ‘til Dawn on the lawn, St. Jude Awareness Week and other events throughout the year. The celebration event Up ‘til Dawn is scheduled for Nov. 7, where students will form teams of five to seven people and stay up playing games and eating food all night long.
Junior Shay Jones wanted to get involved with these organizations because he wanted to help people and see his hard work pay off. Jones said, "I think that there are many Franklin College students that think about getting involved with these organizations, but never do just simply because they don’t really think they would have a place or reason to get involved."
On Friday, October 3, Dame Malls transforms into Shanty Village.
There are nearly 10,000 homeless people today in Indiana, a state of 6.3 million, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates.
In Friday’s annual event led by Habitat for Humanity, students will demonstrate the lives of the homeless. Competing teams will build cardboard homes, and then live in those homes for the night.
Shanty Village shines a spotlight on a somber problem, but fun is part of the night’s draw, too.
Sophomore Habitat for Humanity member Riley Denslaw said, "I’m excited to see what it is like to build a cardboard house and sleep in it over night. People get to learn more about Habitat for Humanity, plus there is going to be good food."
Shanty Village is one of two major service-oriented events coming up at Franklin College. The second event, Up ‘til Dawn, is scheduled for Nov. 7.
Shanty Village is not the only philanthropy Habitat for Humanity participates in. The organization travels to locations such as Bloomington, Martinsville, Muncie and Louisville throughout the semester to help build and repair housing for poverty-stricken families.
They also have Habifest, where teams compete in a Lego house building contest, and a Birdhouse Auction where students, faculty, staff and community members decorate bird houses to help raise money in a silent auction.
While Habitat for Humanity’s main goal is to build homes and raise money to help make a difference in the lives of others, another on-campus organization, Up ‘til Dawn strives to do the same.
Up ‘til Dawn currently has twenty members who work to plan, publicize and host various fundraising events throughout the entire school year. The mission of this organization is to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Senior Jenni Searcy said, "For the past three years, Franklin has raised more than $10,000 for Up ‘til Dawn, and we have had more participation than some of the bigger Indiana schools, including Ball State. We are considered the Indiana leader for the national program, and have hosted a few schools to help them get ideas of how to start a successful Up ‘til Dawn program, including Rose-Hulman."
While many would base success on numbers, Campus Minister David Weatherspoon said, "I don’t measure success by the numbers. I base success on how many lives we have changed."
