On December 23, six members of the Huntsville Youth Council – Ryan Clark, Olivia Crozier, Marly Hogue, Adrian Laksmono, Taylor Smith, and Madison Smrtka – slept in Huntsville’s Civic Square in front of the Algonquin Theatre to raise awareness about youth homelessness. They camped out in cardboard boxes with sleeping bags donated by Algonquin Outfitters for extra warmth.
“Youth homelessness is not seen as a big issue in our community,” said Hogue, Chair of Huntsville Youth Council, in an earlier release. “But we could see some students struggling, even in our school; we wanted to help out in any way we could.”
Doppler checked in with the youth council as they were setting up. See what they had to say about the night ahead of them:
The next morning at 7:45 a.m., we caught up with Hogue and Smrtka as they were waiting for a ride home to see how their night went. It didn’t end up quite as they’d planned. They gathered their boxes together, hoping that would add warmth, and covered it with a tarp, fort-like. But then it started snowing, their fort caved in and everyone got covered in snow.
“Overall we thought it was a really good experience,” said Smrtka. “Around five in the morning we all started waking up and just hanging around. It’s much different doing it with your friends than if it was a real situation alone, it would be much harder.” She noted that they didn’t experience a typical Muskoka winter night – the temperature was mild, and there was no wind. “It could have been a lot more severe.”
The uncertainty of their surroundings was unnerving, added Hogue. “We kept hearing voices, and we jumped at every voice. Are they coming over? Are they going to talk to us? If we were by ourselves it would be a lot more intimidating and a lot scarier, and you wouldn’t get any sleep at all, knowing you were by yourself.” Huntsville OPP officers did check in on the group throughout the night.
Although they weren’t collecting donations, the group received two from passersby which Hogue said they would put toward a good cause. Five people in total stopped to talk to them, and many more walked by to see what the group was doing.
“Hopefully we made the impact we wanted on the community,” said Hogue.
A Town of Huntsville media release noted that the majority of homelessness among youth locally takes the form of ‘couch surfing’, and that a disproportionate percentage – about half – of homeless youth in the District of Muskoka are in the Huntsville area. “You don’t see them in the streets,” said Hogue. “But they are not grounded, they don’t have a good home to go to.” Homelessness often comes about as a result of unstable home life and/or abuse, including substance abuse by the youth and/or other family members.
Read a related story on Doppler here: Huntsville Youth Council shining a light on youth homelessness.
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Thank you to all for your caring efforts to raise awareness about your homeless peers at Huntsville High School. Thank you to the donors of food and supplies for the sleep out : Louis II restaurant for breakfast ;Family Place Restaurent and Pizza Nova for evening pizzas; Tim Hortons for hot chocolate ( delivery by OPP); Great Vine for snacks; Kelly’s Home Furniture for the boxes; and Algonquin Outfitters for the sleeping bags (delivered by Ryan Clark).” It takes a community !” Merry Christmas to all from the board of Top Hat House For Youth