Sleeping out in a frost.

Me on a park bench prior to 2014 sleep-out. This was in the local paper.

Four years ago when we as the Dunedin Night Shelter Trust were trying to raise money to buy our buildings, my friend and I, along with a local politician and another man, slept out in the Octagon, the park-like centre of Dunedin city. It was reported in the paper and raised our profile. 
The next year the Student volunteer centre at the University got in touch and suggested that we have another winter sleep-out involving students. We slept out in the Octagon again and through various fundraising schemes, the nearly 200 students raised $12,000 toward our purchase price. But more than that it launched the last few months of our campaign and raised the city's awareness of the need. We were able to complete the purchase in October of that year. So a student sleep-out in the Octagon in winter (July) has become something of a tradition and I have been privileged to join in them. Last Friday was this year's version. There were smaller numbers, about 70 students, and I shared with them for the night. It reached zero degrees centigrade, probably below that at the grass level, where we were attempting to sleep.  They begin at 7p.m. on the Friday evening with speeches, then had various musicians and entertainers with Zumba and breakfast at around 6 a.m. on Saturday, finishing at 7 a.m.
I unfortunately had responsibilities in the local Church early in the evening.  I had joined some students late afternoon to help them set up the Octagon, then helped look after a family fun night at our Church, (I played pool, foosball, twister etc. with kids in the church hall.) returning to the students about 8 p.m. My daughter who is treasurer of the Night Shelter Trust deputised for me with the opening speech. 
I had expected a friend and a local Member of Parliament to join me for the night, but both came and gave me legitimate reasons why they had to be looking after family instead. So here I was, a lone old guy (68 years old) among 70 students enjoying sleeping out on a freezing night in the centre of the city. I LOVED it all over again. 
I saw these young people caring for the cause that so dominates my life, but they had fun doing it. They made cardboard dwellings where they could sleep. These were judged and the winning team announced. The music talent was of a high standard.  Some "fire dancers" came and entertained, then opened it up to others to join in the activity. This went on for a long time, well past midnight. One particular bar in the Octagon had extremely loud music playing which we could easily hear, so there were a heap of students having a spontaneous dance party, doing some sort of line dancing, singing and laughing in the cold night air.  In our city the students often have a reputation for bad behaviour and drinking too much. This was an alcohol free event, it was freezing, but they were still obviously really enjoying being together. 

Me with the Student volunteer co-ordinator and members of the Uni-crew planning team a week ago.

One incident stood out. There was an asian dwarf girl who needed a wheel chair to go any distance, but who could walk short distances.  She and her carer joined in the fire dancing, laughing and grinning from ear to ear as they attempted the tricks. I was sitting in a deck chair dressed for the cold, just keeping an eye on everything. A man who had been walking through the Octagon sat beside me. He had been drinking and had slurred speech, but was friendly as we chatted a bit while we watched the fire dancers. It turned out that he used to do fire tricks, and for a while he went over and joined in, chatting with the leaders. He came back beside me. The little dwarf girl was attempting the fire dancing nearby and had taken off her jacket, hanging it on a traffic cone. She saw that he could be cold, and came over with her little jacket and offered it to my companion for warmth. He declined, but I was really impressed by this gesture. Here she was a woman with major challenges of her own to face, but still open to the needs of an unknown drunk guy sitting on the sideline.

People gathering for music.

Fire dancers entertained us.

The noisy bar continued to pound out music until 3 a.m. It was getting colder and I found it hard to get comfortable for sleeping. (I had forgotten to bring gloves) I snuck away to my van which was parked just a few metres away. It was not much warmer, but I managed about an hour's sleep. At 6 a.m. Zumba started and a group joined us to cook pancakes for breakfast. My daughter and son-in-law appeared, and we joined a few of the leaders in pulling down the cardboard dwellings and loading the cardboard into a student van and my van, then going off to appropriate skips to get rid of it. The clean-up had begun. We were finished by about 7:50 a.m. and I rushed off to the Farmers Market. There I stood for nearly four hours with a bucket collecting for the Night Shelter. Just after midday I headed home. I had got up at 6:30 a.m. on Friday morning for a radio interview, and from there until midday Saturday, I had only one hour of disturbed, cold, uncomfortable sleep, and had done a lot of work. Driving the 10k home I began to feel sleepy. At one stage I momentarily lost consciousness, but managed to wake up before the van wandered off the road. At home I made a cup of tea and sandwiches and crawled into bed for the rest of the afternoon.

Tucked up to sleep out in freezing temperatures to raise awareness about homelessness.

Zumba at 6 a.m. The dwarf asian girl tried Zumba in her wheelchair. Toward the left edge of the group.

It is nearly breakfast. 

The edge of the Farmers Market where I was collecting.

I felt really privileged to be part of such a wholesome event. There is much about the world to bring a sense of despair, but these young people lifted this old man's spirits with their compassion, energy and shear enjoyment of life. Well done to Otago University Uni-Crew.