A12 TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010 MAPLE RIDGE AND PITT MEADOWS TIMES
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Alouette students line up in front of their makeshift shelter to receive a ration of crackers last Thursday.
Jennifer Markham/TIMES
A hard lesson on homelessness
negativity they experienced when the school day ended and other students filled the group of Alouette Ele- schoolyard. The students who called mentary got closer look at being homeless than per- them “hobos” and asked haps any of them realized them if they had drugs, and did the spitting, are in last Thursday. The students were spit classes with the leadership on, thrown shoes at, called kids. When asked about the n a m e s, t o l d t h e y d o n’t turn of events, their teacher, Julie Hearn, said the deserve chocolate whole exercise went bars and balls to a completely difplay with, among QUOTE: ferent direction she other things by their “I was didn’t anticipate. classmates. stunned. I “I was stunned,” The Grade 6 and didn’t know she said. “I didn’t 7 leadership students camped out what to say. know what to say. Something had in their playground Something in the afterfor the day to simuhad changed changed noon.Their perspeclate being homein the after- tive changed a lot.” less. They built their noon.” One student ow n s h e l t e r a n d were given a limJulie Hearn commented: “I’ve lear ned so much ited amount of food today.” to share - crackers. Hearn also said They learned about that “the lessons the issue of homelessness for eight weeks they got out of it are very leading up to the event, but valuable.” The leadership students talking about the stereotypes didn’t compare to the have done similar events in
JENNIFER MARKHAM editorial@mrtimes.com
A
Carrier of the week
the past to raise awareness, including a 24-hour vow of silence to support people in the community that have no voice. The $570 they raised for that event was given to Free the Children Foundation. The students commented that at lunch hour their fellow classmates were curious and somewhat willing to listen, but after school that mood changed. As part of creating an authentic experience, the students were asked to move from their shelter they built in the morning on the playground, to the front of the school. The parents who approached the children were curious, and told them it was a good cause. The reactions from fellow
classmates brought about feelings of hurt, and empathy for the homeless. When the leadership students tried to hand out information slips about what they were doing, some were crumpled and thrown back. One student in the leadership class commented that the whole thing might have been a failure, but it was suggested that instead of raising awareness in their community, they rose awareness in themselves of how important and needed the work they’re doing really is. When asked if the students thought their experience was representative of what homeless people experience, they agreed it must be worse for the homeless. Hearn said, “Nothing they believed before is the same.”
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