Homelessness awareness on Bridge Square (updated post)

Homelessness awareness Homelessness awarenessHomelessness awareness Homelessness awareness
On Thursday night, the Northfield Community Action Center (CAC) held its annual homeless awareness event on Bridge Square, part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. I took these photos this morning at about 6:15 as a few St. Olaf students (and from The Key/Northfield Union of Youth) began waking up. CAC Executive Director Jim Blaha kept yelling, “When I get up, everybody gets up!” Read more in the paper’s article on this earlier this week.

Homelessness awareness on Bridge Square Homelessness awareness on Bridge Square Homelessness awareness on Bridge Square

Update 11/17: I got this email and the three additional photos above from Nate Jacobi, Assistant Director for Civic Engagement at St. Olaf:

Nathan_Jacobi Hi Griff, I believe there were around 20 people who stayed overnight (including around 14 from St. Olaf and a number of students affiliated with the Key) who slept out. Here are the names who participated from St. Olaf (not all of them stayed through the night):

Lauren Zimbelman, Beth Reynolds, Mackenzie O’Connell, Hattie Ryan, Monica Cooper, Lizzy French, Chrisopher Mukina, Jason Kornelis, Rachel Schwabe-Fry, Mai T. Vong, Lee Thao, Pattona Xiong, Melissa Yang, Lue Vang, Eric Khuong, Domonique DeWild, Erica Berger, Leslie Abell, Janne Dale, Tyler Hauger, Ricky Traut, Michael Murchison, Nathan Clement, Joe Budish, Vera Belazeluoska, Kelsey Harwood, Siri Svanoe, Marija Knudson, Lisa Knapp, Alexandra Mastney, (+ 3 others whose names I do not have).

I didn’t know that St. Olaf had a Civic Engagement Program within its Center for Experiential Learning (CEL). Here’s a blurb:

This, the newest of the CEL programs, is a collaboration between the CEL’s experiential learning professionals and faculty, helping classroom instructors identify ways that students can connect service and civic engagement to classroom learning. Building on the college’s longstanding commitment to service and community involvement, the goal of the program is to make these activities academic in nature while contributing to the needs of the community.

4 Comments

  1. Marie Fischer said:

    I’m so glad I left before you were able to take hideous pictures of my icky morning face.

    November 16, 2007
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Dang, sorry I missed that, Marie!

    I’ve updated this post with a link to the Key/UoY and more photos/text from Nate Jacobi at St. Olaf.

    November 18, 2007
  3. Gilly Wigley said:

    :'( I missed it. I had lots of fun last year.

    November 20, 2007

Leave a Reply