Tyrel

Sinseanmhathair (sounds like shin-shan-wawhir) John did not play trivia with us tonight what a shame. He did take us to the global village where we got some food from many different cultures. I’ve been trying to study recently, but it’s been really hard to concentrate, so I’m really looking forward to next week when I can get some studying done. Last night we slept behind the PACand although we learned that condensation gets created by the cardboard being under the tarp and not on the tarp to absorb water, I had a pretty good sleep and woke up damp. This morning I also got interviewed by CTV, I found it kind of weird how she rehearsed her lines, but it was fun and I think I did a decent job. Tonight will be our last night sleeping outside and I’m looking forward to it, but also kind of feel sad that we won’t be spending all day with each other anymore. This whole experience was 100% worth and I would do it again in a heart beat. I would recommend everyone to be an HP because of the understanding you get about homelessness, the confidence you get from doing class room announcements, the money you raise for EGADZ, and the friendship you create from sleeping with strangers outside for a common goal. I enjoyed every minute of doing this campaign and hope Kaylyn, Josh and Pax are not to disappointed that I didn’t throw shade to them even though I can’t write and essay of shade.

Paxtyn

Hello and welcome to my fifth and final blog. I think I say this everyday but today was the HARDEST day of the campaign. I’m more tired than ever and my drive to complete homework and pay attention in class has diminished almost completely. What’s worse is that I got caught in the bathroom attempting to wet my hair in the sink and got some extremely odd looks when people realized what I was doing. That being said, the lack of sleep has made myself and the other sleepers quite loopy and giggly, which provides for some good fun!

It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that this is the last day of the campaign- though I’m excited to go home (and most importantly shower) these past five days have been the most remarkably positive experience. I learnt a lot about myself and others- namely how generous and caring the majority of my university peers are. Three lovely ladies that I am happy to call some of my best friends, Sophia, Thea and Anna never failed to find me in the day and make sure I was alive and well both mentally and physically. I have also gained what I consider to be lasting friendships that will hopefully continue after this campaign and I feel so lucky to have met such kind hearted individuals who are outrageously generous and selfless.

I am very thankful for this experience and most importantly for everyone who contributed for such an amazing cause. I hope EGADZ receives the recognition it so much deserves and that individuals have become more aware of the trials that homeless youth go through on a daily basis.

And again,

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou! J

Pax Kruger

Josh

Hey folks, it is the last night for us. An awesome time is ending. I will miss it so much! I mean I will miss the people who I was surrounded with. Props to Kaylyn, Pax, Tyrel and Papa John for being beautiful people! I enjoyed every moment with you guys.

Today was really busy. If been everywhere. First of all every 1 ½ hours I had an announcement. People are so kind. Since we have been around for a while they are prepared. Every class gives us a bit more change to reach our goal. Apart from that we have been to the arts tower to talk to the professors about homeless youth. They are always gentle.

Just because this campaign ends it doesn’t mean we solved homelessness! They are still people out there. If you see someone in suffer please offer some help. At least smile at them. The worst I recognized during this campaign is that many people are ignoring me. I mean is it so difficult to smile at people? If you can’t help because of many reasons it is fine, but please do not ignore the problems!

Kaylyn

Our celebrity sleepover last night was a huge success! Corey O’Soup and Lisa Broda are such amazing people and I am so glad they came out to support us. This morning we had a CTV News interview and that went well. It’s amazing that they decided to report on our fundraiser and I am so glad they helped us get the word out on all that we do. We also had a pie sale today and the pies sold out super fast! I am so thankful there were so many people willing to support the cause today as it really helps motivate us homeless participants.

Wow. This week has been so surreal. It has been a mixture of scary, difficult, fun, and exciting. While times got really hard sometimes, I always had support from the other homeless participants and all the other committee members. I wanted to use tonight’s blog to shout out some very important people that I have been fortunate enough to spend the past week with.

Paxtyn, Tyrel, and Josh: thank you so much for the constant support, encouragement, and help you all provided me with this week. I literally could not have gotten through it without. Thank you so much Pax. I am so glad I got to make a new friend that is as great as you. I loved our times yelling out hilarious Vines and Memes, changing in the bathroom to prepare for bed, washing our clothes in the sink, doing classroom presentations together, and so much more.

John: I don’t think us HP’s will ever be able to thank you enough! You put up with our jokes, whining, yelling, sass, and so much more. You always had our backs no matter what. You were the perfect person to watch over us and help us get through one of the roughest weeks we could have imagined. If anything, you made what a rough week would have been into such an amazing one. You went above and beyond, thank you so much!

Lastly, I want to thank Kylee. Without her, this campaign wouldn’t have even happened. And without you, I wouldn’t have even joined the campaign to begin with. Your determination and hard work is truly inspiring. Anyone that you ask would be able to tell you that you have a true passion for this cause, and it showed in everything you did for this campaign. Thank you so much for being such an amazing project manager, roommate, support system, and best friend.

5 Days for the Homeless Saskatoon and all of my experiences that came with the campaign will be with me for the rest of my life. It opened me up to new experiences, tough times, and amazing people all while raising funds for homeless and at-risk youth in Saskatoon. I want to thank everyone who was a part of it, you truly made a difference in so many kids’ lives and mine as well.

Officially signing off,

Kaylyn Hinrichsen

Kaylyn

Last night’s sleep was decent. Unfortunately it snowed, which then turned to water as soon as it hit our tarp. We woke up to wet sleeping bags! Today has been a busy day for me. I have found it extremely more difficult to focus on school and assignments when I have to worry about where I am sleeping that night and what food I am going to eat. I imagine that this is a sliver of the overwhelmed feelings that individuals experiencing homelessness face. I got to do a video interview with the Evan Hardy Media School today and that was fun! I got to speak about some of the challenges I have been faced with so far this week. Tonight we have our celebrity sleepover with Corey O’Soup and Lisa Broda and I am super excited to chat with them about all the work they do. Tomorrow morning, as soon as we wake up, we also have an interview with CTV news as well. We have some very exciting things coming up as we head towards the end of the campaign and it makes me very proud to be a part of this campaign and working with an amazing group of volunteers.

Tyrel

Great Grandpapa John’s trivia’s skill may be perfect now… Some of us were cold last night, but I slept like a baby even though it snowed then melted, so in the morning we woke up with our sleeping bags a little bit wet. I’ve been getting mad shade Ka today with mean glares the pierce my frail ego, but I guess some are well deserved. There was another killer spot a find that would be great, it would be super warm, but we can’t fit everyone since yesterday was our last night alone together and we have add-ons Corey O’Soup and Lisa Broda. Should be a fun and not warm night J.

Paxtyn

Just as we thought we had gotten the hang of sleeping outdoors, last night ended up being the worst sleep of the campaign. Though we all fell asleep quite quickly after some chatting, we woke up to a soaked tarp and sleeping bags! This day proved to be the most challenging for me as I felt extremely sluggish and hungry throughout the day. In the morning we shared a coffee between the three of us (pro tip: you can exchange your roll up the rim for an XL coffee at Tims- not just a medium) and a banana while we worked our way through multiple classroom presentations.

My scheduled classes proved to be very demanding today and required a lot of brain power and focus, which at my current energy levels was a lot to give. This being said, it came as no surprise to me when my friend had to wake me up in the MIDDLE of my Philosophy class because I had fallen asleep half way through the lecture. To say the least, it’s clear I may owe that professor an apology in order to get back into her good graces.

Tonight is very exciting for all of us as it is Celebrity Sleepover Night! Corey O’Soup and Lisa Broda are coming to visit us, two prominent youth advocates based out of Saskatoon. I personally hope that I will be able to stay awake long enough to have a decent and knowledgeable conversation with two individuals who do so much for the community.

With only two nights to go, I am anticipating the end with great expectations and impatience.

Signing off,

Pax Kruger

Josh

Hey folks, we are half way trough and I can not wait to get back home. This morning me and Tyrel washed our feet in the sink this morning. We also washed our socks. To be honest they were smelly as… Anyways, to find a blow dryer at this university is very tough! Over this 4 days and 3 nights we got really close together and I will miss the nights being without them. But anyways there are still two days to go to. Tonight we will have two sleepers extra. So, we were looking for an awesome spot to sleep tonight; and I have to say it is pretty neat. Apart from that I am looking forward to the wrap up event on Friday! Finally a beer, a burger and a good sleep.

Josh

Hey folks, last night was better than average and I had such a good sleep. Hence my day was much better. A coffee is safe every morning now. We found a spot on campus which service coffee every morning. Apart from that the day was pretty much just studying, studying, studying… I am still not ready for tomorrow. Let’s see how we go! Still have a couple of hours before the midterm. Also it is such a bummer that’s my girlfriend’s birthday tomorrow and I won’t be there tonight to celebrate in. I would love to celebrate with you. I hope you will still have a lot of fun! We will see each other tomorrow. Happy birthday to you!

Tyrel

Grandpa John finally got trivia right this time and boredom has disappeared! We ended up having a good sleep and my spot was well appreciated. Today I found a killer spot that was rejected because it was just a little public, but in the end today I keep learning new memes. We have figured out our last few spots and they’re decent, but space determines a lot in where we sleep. Tonight will be our last night sleeping outside without guests, there is a small feeling of wanting it to be a little longer. Grandpa John is confusing: saying things are bad when they’re good and stuff like that. I enjoyed doing announcements. That’s the Tea.

Paxtyn

Had a very good sleep tonight, whether that was because of the warmer weather or the utter exhaustion is anybody’s guess. Today we had quite a bit of downtime between campaigning and class time and were able to play a couple games in the office. What I’ve learnt is that I am a trivia master and that is indisputable no matter what the other sleepers say.

But in reality, today was extremely hard. Though we had a fairly decent sleep, I think it’s safe to say that all of us had difficulties staying awake and alert throughout the day- not being able to nap is hard! That being said, the overall generosity of the university faculty members and students was quite overwhelming and the kind hearts of the 5D4H campaign members (shout-out to my fellow homeless participants, our very dear Papa John and tireless campaign manager Kylee) is extremely inspiring and makes the sleeping outside and tired days more than bearable J

Also, last night the EGADZ Outreach van came and visited us as we set up camp and delivered sandwiches made by the kids and hot chocolate to drink before we drifted to sleep. To say the least, it was very, very much appreciated and extrememly generous for them to take time out of their very busy schedule to come and visit us!

Tonight we were lucky enough to attend a USASK Improv show in which two of our members Papa John and Uncle Sean put on a show for students at Convocation Hall. The night ended with camaraderie and laughs and I again am very thankful for everyone and their hard work on this campaign.

All in all, I am going to bed with my heart extremely full and hopeful for the next day.

Signing off,

Pax Kruger

Kaylyn

Last night’s sleep was super good! Since the first night for me was terrible, I was super exhausted and fell asleep right away. Before we went to bed, the outreach workers stopped by to give us hot chocolate, sandwiches, and apples. It was amazing and we are so appreciative that they took the time to come see us!

Today was a great day! I am finally starting to get comfortable doing classroom presentations and I think its fun to tell everyone about our fundraiser and EGADZ. We also got a fantastic donation of fresh fruit, cookies, and sandwiches made by some of the kids EGADZ. Everything was absolutely delicious and we are so grateful for their thoughtfulness. There was a Usask Improv show tonight to raise money for the campaign as well. It was hilarious watching John and Sean perform. I am having a lot of fun being a sleeper in this campaign and I look forward to our last three days!

Kaylyn

Last night was an experience I will probably never forget. It was the first time I have ever slept outside in that kind of weather and to be honest, it was really hard. I probably slept for about a half an hour in total. I knew that it wasn’t going to be comfortable sleeping outside in a sleeping bag in negative temperatures, but I guess you can never truly prepare for something like that until you actually have to experience it. Although it was a rough and cold night, I was reminded about the fact that individuals facing homelessness deal with this every night and often times in worse conditions. Overall, it was a very difficult and humbling experience. I know I have a long week ahead of me, but I am super excited to continue to experience new things alongside raising funds and awareness for homeless and at-risk youth.

Tyrel

Today Papa John had back up for trivia, but still had to skip a question so… boredom may still yet set in. I told everyone I would throw shade at them in this blog, but maybe I won’t. Who knows? So far every one has been ok, but Ka and I were not warm tonight, on the other hand Josh and Pax were warm. Doing class room announcements were fun, but a little scary at first, think we all got through that tonight and we will have no problem doing them tomorrow. Tonight we are going to sleep in a really fun spot, but Papa John keeps throwing shade at it, I already know he is wrong about it.

Paxtyn

Night one went off without a hitch! We had cozied up between the greenhouses on campus and had a decent night- though no one could really have a remarkable sleep with two tarps and a sleeping bag in this weather. We were rudely awakened by our VP (and local sass king) John Younger of Internal Affairs with a loud rendition of a German song titled “Guten Morgen Sonnenschein,” which will now be known forever as THE worst song in history.

Though I was initially concerned about finding enough food to not be starving during the day, people were extraordinarily generous about donating food to us and monetary donations to EGADZ as well- shout out to campus security for the Dominoes!

As the day went on, it was difficult enough to attend my classes and keep my eyes open for the duration of the school hours, let alone actually focus on the material we were learning. I was quite taken aback by the toll one night of sleeping outdoors took on my mental and physical abilities and cannot even begin to understand what doing this on a day-to-day basis without all the assistance and care we’ve been given must feel like. This truly is a humbling experience and I am extremely excited to find out what is coming next!

Until next time…

Pax Kruger

Josh

Hey folks, last night was quite alright. The spot we choose seemed to be awesome. We were covered from four sites, so there were no wind coming through. Also we had an awesome setup. A tarp at the bottom, some cardboard above, then us and another tarp on top. At the start of the night my feet were kind of wet and they got cold for a while. After a few hours of sleep I woke up because light were shining. I couldn’t believe we slept in since John wanted to wake us up. So I just kept sleeping. Anyways, the day was alright as well. I have been pretty busy all day long and totally forgot to eat. Don’t get me wrong I had some bits here and there, but at the end of the day I felt really tired and wasn’t (and I am still) not able to think. The learning for the midterm Wednesday was therefore not useful at all. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully with good sleep and a good food to start the day with.

Paxtyn

It is my first few hours as a homeless participant and so far they have been filled with anticipation. Though I am excited for the nights (and days) to come I am feeling increasingly nervous about meeting my basic needs on a day to day basis. Most prevalent of these fears are questions such as where will my next meal come from? Or Will I be able to sleep through the night? Though we ate a mere five hours ago, my stomach is already rumbling for a late night snack and the fact that there will be none provided is weighing heavily on my mind. I am extremely excited for the time to come but there is no doubt in my mind that these will be five of the most challenging, as well as the most humbling experiences of my university career, if not my life. Stay tuned to see how it all plays out!

Kaylyn

I am really looking forward to talking to lots of people about the campaign this week. I hope to bring more awareness to youth homelessness and all of the great things EGADZ does across campus. I hope that we will be able to reach our fundraiser goal or even exceed it. A couple things I am not looking forward to are trying to sleep in the cold and not being able to shower. It is going to be really hard to attend my classes and try to concentrate on my school work if I am running on little sleep. I already miss having access to food and the Internet whenever I want. This week is going to be hard, but I am confident that the other sleepers and I will make it super fun as well!

Josh

Hey folks, till now I don’t feel any change. We were just outside to find some cardboard to put under our sleeping bags, so the ground won’t be too hard to sleep on. Surprisingly I am not hungry till now; this might be because I am a little bit nervous. So good that it will warm up now, but also the snow will melt and we might get wet. I have to find a something during this week to get my cloth dry again. Hopefully we will find some food tomorrow morning and the first coffee I will get donated. That’s what I am looking for.

Tyrel

We have just embarked on our 5 day journey and being bored might just be our biggest problem because John skips a lot of trivia questions due to not being able to pronounce names. I think another problem will be the snow melting instead of it being too cold, This week should be a really warm week and that is kind of a relief and a disappointment. We found some cushions in the dumpster and hopefully that will come in handy tonight.