RORY MACLEAN
News Editor

Five days for the homeless, where five students from the Edwards School of Business spend five days living outside to raise funds to help homeless people, begins next week, running from March 14 to 19.

“The main focus of the event is to increase awareness of youth at risk and of youth homelessness,” said Reem Matlak, local event organizer.

Five days for the homeless started in Alberta in 2005 and has been held in Saskatoon every year since 2008. The Saskatoon group is trying to raise $12,000 to donate to the Saskatoon downtown youth centre, EGADZ.

“They will be sleeping outside throughout the week,” said Matlak. “They have to attend all their classes, they don’t have access to showers on campus and they cannot have any flow of income.”

This year’s participants — John Irwin, Lisa Book, Gaelen Andrews, Megan Orr and Arianna Berthold — cannot pay for meals with their own income. All their food must be donated during the fundraiser.

“They’re given a sleeping bag and pillow. They use that throughout the week,” she said. Technology, including cell phones and laptops, is not permitted.

The five Edwards students must also wear the same clothes over the course of the challenge. They are allowed to trade in their sleeping bags and pillows for an emergency meal, if things should get tough.

Matlak says the point of the fundraiser is not to make these students suffer, but to use visible homelessness as a marketing gimmick to shine the spotlight on EGADZ and its programs.

“Instead of just having a poster on the wall saying these people are at risk, (you’re) going to see these people outside,” she said.

If weather dips below -15 C, participants will be allowed to stay inside.

Those interested in donating can do it online at fivedays.ca, or look for the group in the Arts Tunnel.

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file photo: Michelle Berg