In a previous post, I told you about my teen age's daughter's school holding evening called Shanty Town. It was a chance for the kids to have an awesome experience to raise homelessness awareness. They were letting the kids firsthand see what it was like to "sleep on the street".
Tatum joined about 25 other high schoolers for an evening in a cardboard box. They built them themselves. They got to go through a soup line, they had a guest speaker, and watch a movie on the topic. But mainly they had to survive just one night out in the cold. Something, some people have to survive...every night.
They were encouraged to only bring a pillow. No blankets or sleeping bags. That would defeat the purpose of the experience they were told. So, Tatum went with just a sweatshirt, and really thick socks. It got down into the 40's that night. She said they learned that the average age for homeless children was the age of 7. That is Matthew's age.
She said she would fall asleep, and think that it had been like two hours, but then look at her phone clock, and it would only be like 8 minutes. She said she did that all night long. Slept in 8 minute intervals. She was so cold, she just couldn't sleep better than that.
By the middle of the night alot of the kids had gone into the school. Out of the 25, only 5 made it the whole night out there. Tatum was one of them. (except for bathroom breaks)
She said she would fall asleep, and think that it had been like two hours, but then look at her phone clock, and it would only be like 8 minutes. She said she did that all night long. Slept in 8 minute intervals. She was so cold, she just couldn't sleep better than that.
By the middle of the night alot of the kids had gone into the school. Out of the 25, only 5 made it the whole night out there. Tatum was one of them. (except for bathroom breaks)
I picked her up at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. She was full of ambition. She wants to volunteer at the local soup kitchen.
I'm very proud of her. I think she got it.
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