Concordia Journal Home > Archives > March 20, 2008 issue >

Sleeping rough yields benefits 

By Barbara Black

Three business students showed they know how to generate revenue last week. They raised a whopping $38,397 for Dans la Rue by camping outside in the cold.

Adam Gold, Brian Chungwing and Joshua Redler took part in Five Days for the Homeless: Students Supporting Youth at Risk, which encourages students to raise money and awareness for a local charity. It started three years ago at the Alberta School of Business and has spread to include other schools. Our students raised the most money of the ten participating schools this year.

Concordia’s gritty downtown campus is ideally suited to this project, and the trio threw themselves into the effort.

They stayed outside the Guy Metro Building from 5 p.m. Sunday, March 9, until 5 p.m. the following Friday. Following the rules, they spent no money, relying on the kindness of strangers and friends for food and drink. No showers, but they could use a Concordia washroom. They had to keep going to class and go to any meetings they normally would attend.

Temperatures went down to -12°C, and it snowed. They reported that it was disconcerting to lie in their sleeping bags and hear the cars going by so close to them.

They had lots of company, and some of their visitors stayed overnight, including Professors Mahesh Sharma and Martin Martens and staff member Karim Boulos.
They got lots of attention, too. CUTV produced video blogs, and they were well covered by the Montreal media.

Then the donations started rolling in. The Canadian Federation of Students National gave $500. ASFA, the Arts and Science Federation of [student] Associations, gave $1,000. Concordia University gave $5,000. The Royal Bank gave $2,000. Many individuals donated generously.

Their goal was $15,000, but when an anonymous angel gave $15,000, they doubled it, and still put it over the top.