Rather than living in a tent for five days during a chilly Saskatchewan spring, the University of Regina Hill Business Students Society is trying something new in its annual fundraiser for Carmichael Outreach.
This year’s iteration is being called “Project Live for 5” and will consist of a two-hour nightly livestream on Facebook from 7-9 pm. Guest speakers will consist of representatives from local businesses such as Krugo and Good Spirit Kombucha. The livestream will also consist of performances from local musicians and nightly raffles for those who donate.
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The fundraiser’s previous iteration consisted of a number of different events over the week with the centrepiece being five students living outside of the Riddell Centre for the duration of the fundraiser. They could only eat what was donated to them and could only go inside for their classes.
Jordan Tholl was one of those five students in 2018. He values his experience and describes it as a great way to learn, empathize and change preconceptions and biases toward homelessness.
“You understand the whole time while you are doing it,” said Tholl. “ ‘Well, it’s only five days. I’m only sleeping outside for five days.’ But for a lot of people that’s not the case … I think being in it, it really gives you a sense of how blessed you are … it’s really an opportunity to learn … and it really changed our perspectives on life in general.”
Nick Faye, the development coordinator at Carmichael Outreach, explained the funding received from the annual event would be used to support its three major programs: housing support, food security and its free boutique. The housing support program is the most crucial due to recent reductions in a federal grant.
“We are not the only ones who have had our funding reduced so being selected as the recipient by the BSS is absolutely huge,” said Faye. “Its nice to have a recurring source of fundraising with an organization that we have a really good relationship with and we’re really fortunate to have it.”
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Melissa Donald, the Vice-President Academic for the Hill BSS, is one of the organizers of this year’s fundraiser. She admits it has been difficult planning the virtual event in the midst of the pandemic but it has come together through a lot of hard work.
“Honestly, it’s changed so much from when we first started talking about it, to what it is now,” Donald said. “It just grew as we got more opinions from people and kind of figured out more of a set view of what we wanted to do.”
When asked if this year’s fundraising goal of $30,000 was achievable, she confidently responded:
“Yes, it one hundred percent is.”
Last year’s fundraiser was able to raise $40,000 of its $60,000 goal while lacking all the physical events due to the sudden lockdown just days before the fundraisers start date. Donald is confident the public will step up again, now that the situation is more crucial than ever.
“It’s more important now to help out our community than it has been in previous years,” she said.
Faye is grateful for the BSS’s support in these hard times.
“I would just love to thank the Hill BSS, the five days for the homeless team and anyone who has donated,” he said. “Thank you so much, we absolutely depend on this funding and it is doing a lot of good in our community.”
“Project Live for 5” is scheduled to run March 15-19 on Facebook livestream. Donations will be accepted on the livestream itself, the BSS website and the Carmichael website.
