Students to Sleep in Boxes to Raise Funds for the Homeless

About 150 students belonging to a humanitarian club at Northport High School are raising awareness of the growing homelessness problem on Long Island by spending the night the same way a homeless person would.

Students for 60,000 will sleep in boxes outside of the high school to simulate what it’s like to be homeless during the S.H.A.N.T.Y. event on Tuesday night.

S.H.A.N.T.Y. stands for Sheltering the Homeless And Needy This Year and that’s exactly what Students for 60,000 plan to do, said event co-chair and NHS senior Claire Egan.

Since 1992, S.H.A.N.T.Y. has been showing students what it’s like to be homeless for a night.

“We’re having guest speakers come from local food pantries to speak about what homeless people on Long Island go through at a daily basis,” said co-chair and NHS senior Julia D’Andrea.

For a meal, students will get a bag of chips, a pb&j sandwich and a bottle of water: the same meal many homeless people are given at shelters.

All students involved were required to raise a minimum of $100 to partake in this event.

“It’s a great event that we host every year,” D’Andrea said. “We voted as a club to see where all our funds this year. It’s gonna be a great turnout.”

S.H.A.N.T.Y. raised more than $20,000 for local homeless shelters last year. Club members are hoping for a bigger fundraising turnout this year.

“We want to raise as much as we can,” D’Andrea said.

Students will camp out outside the high school, near the football field and track, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Guest speakers are slotted to speak at 8:30 p.m.

In addition to standing up for the homeless and needy, Students for 60,000 helps out locally and internationally. The club takes annual trips to Nicaragua to build houses and teach lessons at schools. The students in the club helped a town in Nicaragua obtain water that’s safe to drink and also traveled to help the pueblos in Mexico.

Photo Credit: Julia D’Andrea. Photos are from last year’s event, which was held inside due to weather conditions.