Daybreak’s sixth annual Sleepout raises over $160,000 for Macon’s homeless
Daybreak raised a record amount of money at its sixth annual Greater Macon Sleepout last month, director Sister Theresa Sullivan said Monday. The event raised $160,431 for the resource center on Walnut Street, which event organizer Jeff Battcher said will go a long way to support Bibb County’s approximately 300 homeless residents.
“The ultimate goal is to get people in housing, to get them off the street,” Battcher said. “So that’s what we’ll be able to do, is to keep providing these services that are so vital.”
Over 100 people camped out in tents on a grassy lawn beside Daybreak on Feb. 28 to support the day center, which provides meals, showers, laundry services, computer and telephone access and medical care to about 100 homeless clients each day. Participants shared a hot soup dinner together, heard the stories from former clients who had secured jobs and housing with Daybreak’s help, and spent hours singing songs and roasting marshmallows by campfires.
Organizers of the event also encouraged participants to spend time with currently and formerly homeless clients who spent the night inside the day center, which normally closes its doors at 4:30 p.m. The Sleepout does not aim to recreate the experience of homelessness, but rather to provide an opportunity for participants to sleep in solidarity with those who don’t have a warm bed to crawl into each night.
“There’s nothing that will make you think about how fortunate your life is than spending just one night sleeping outside in solidarity with the homeless,” Battcher said, ”because you will, for the rest of your life, every time you take that hot shower or jump in your nice bed, you’ll think how fortunate you are.”
Unlike other charities, which often host galas or high-budget events to raise funds, Daybreak puts on the Sleepout at virtually no cost, Batcher said. Other than the cost of T-shirts participants received, every dollar raised will directly benefit the resource center.
Daybreak, a chapter of the homelessness charity Depaul International, relies largely on donations and local grants to fund its operating expenses. Money brought in from the Sleepout will cover over a third of the nonprofit organization’s annual budget, which Battcher said will allow the center to keep offering the resources its clients need most, like mental health counseling and case management.
“You always at the end of the year are wondering, ‘Do we have enough money?,’ especially when it starts getting cold. So, this really relieves a huge burden and stress,” he said. “This goes directly to the people that need it.”
The next Sleepout is scheduled for Feb. 27, 2020, and Daybreak hopes to raise even more money next year.
“Every dollar that people gave,” Sullivan said, “is critical to helping us reach out to our brothers and sisters.”
Samantha Max is a Report for America corps member and reports for The Telegraph with support from the News/CoLab at Arizona State University. Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/smax1996 and on Twitter @samanthaellimax. You can also join her Facebook group. Learn more about Report for America at www.reportforamerica.org.
This story was originally published March 18, 2019 at 6:00 PM.
