Students sleep out in the cold to raise money

A night in Cardboard City raises more than $15,000 for needy families.

Jennifer Isbell, 17, (left) watches as Nikki McGlosson, 16, works on a sewing project Tuesday Nov. 24, inside their cardboard home on the Edgewood High School lawn during the school’s Cardboard City fundraiser.

Staff photo by Pat Auckerman Jennifer Isbell, 17, (left) watches as Nikki McGlosson, 16, works on a sewing project Tuesday Nov. 24, inside their cardboard home on the Edgewood High School lawn during the school’s Cardboard City fundraiser.

ENLARGE PHOTO

By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer 1:30 AM Wednesday, November 25, 2009

TRENTON — About 100 high school students slept in cardboard boxes overnight in an exercise that drove home the meaning of Thanksgiving.

The exercise that began Tuesday evening, Nov. 24, was part of the fourth annual Cardboard City, a charity event of Edgewood High School and Butler Tech FFA that raises money for needy families and gives students a chance to experience homelessness.

“We all need to have an eye-opening experience to remind us to be thankful for what we do have,’’ said Kellie Warner, an agricultural teacher and coordinator of the event.

“They realize not only that they have heat, food and shelter, but we also take their cell phones and iPods away, so they experience what it is to be poor.’’

Cardboard City began in 2006 with just 25 students as part of an effort to raise $1,000.

This year, the event attracted four times the number of students and raised more than $15,000 to help pay utility bills and to purchase Christmas dinner and toys for needy families.

The experience was not lost on 16-year-old Nikki McGlosson.

As a child, McGlosson moved from place to place and often didn’t know where she would sleep until she began staying with grandparents.

“I’ve been there,” McGlosson said. “I’ve never experienced not having a place to sleep, but I moved around a lot.”

McGlosson stayed in a cardboard box with friend Jennifer Isbell, 17. As they sat under a small flashlight, both discussed the impact Cardboard City had on them.

“I came out here to be thankful that I have a place where I have a roof over my head and good food and great friends to sleep in a box with,” said McGlosson, a junior.

Daniel Zimmerman, 15, was participating in the event for the second year.

“It’s a good experience. It’s eye-opening,” said Zimmerman, a sophomore. “I’ve learned to be thankful for what I do have. The house I have. It’s easy to take that for granted and not realize that it’s not what everybody has.”

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pacfandave....go downtown Cincinnati, feed the homeless at City Gospel Mission, one time! The "thank you's" as they are leaving, is what I hear...stretching your hand out to someone in these circumstances is what they do need! The addictions they have is not the root of the problem, it is the void they have in their hearts that is the root, but people are to afraid to let them know there is a filling for it! I am not afraid to share the Good Word and these teenagers aren't either! Are you?

Nona
10:18 AM, 11/25/2009

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Tell you what. After your night under the stars, after you donate your collected monies, go back in a couple of days and see if you made a difference. I think what you'll find is that you've enabled. What you should get from this experience is that it could happen to you. If you determine that it won't, then your lesson will have been learned.

pacfandave
7:03 AM, 11/25/2009

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I THINK THESE YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR HAVING A CONSCIENCE FOR THE PLIGHT OF OUR HOMELESS.
I'VE BEEN HOMELESS AND I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE BUT IT IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT IT IS NOW. IT JUST PLEASES ME THAT THEY HAVE THERE MINDS ON SOMETHING ELSE BUT THEMSELVES. I THANK YOU FOR THINKING OF OTHERS AND I'M SURE THEY THANK YOU TOO! WAY TO GO YOUNG PEOPLE.

SHERRY A.
1:59 AM, 11/25/2009

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