10th December 2018
The Living Room has participated in Saint Albans Sleepout for the first time this year – and it proved to be a fantastic experience for all involved. SA Sleepout draws attention to homelessness in our county by allowing members of the public to ‘sleep rough’ for one night and raise sponsorship money for homeless charities.
We teamed up with Herts Young Homeless, Centre 33, Emmaus and Open Door as the event’s adopted charities. On Friday 7th December, 14 of our ‘sleepers’ joined over 100 other brave souls who spent the night in the grounds of Oaklands college, St Albans, with nothing other than sleeping bags, cardboard boxes and tarpaulin to protect them from the elements.
“There was a great sense of comradery among all those involved,” said Mark Wiseman, fundraising manager at The Living Room. “It was a dry night and the temperature never threatened to drop to freezing point, but it felt cold enough and sleep was hard to come by. I’ve got no doubt that everyone who took part thought about those people who have to put up with far worse conditions night-in, night-out.”
We’d like to thank everyone involved in making SA Sleepout happen, in particular our fellow charities. Special thanks must go out to Kathryn Salmon, head of fundraising at Herts Young Homeless, who took charge of all the preparations and was key to making Sleepout such a success. Thanks also to Orla and her staff at Oaklands College, who went out of their way to make us feel welcome and safe. We look forward to making SA Sleepout a firm fixture in our calendar of fundraising events.