On December 17, approximately 18 RKYHS students participated in the school’s third annual Homelessness Awareness Solidarity Sleepout, giving up the comforts of home for one night to show their support for, and raise awareness about, the nearly one million young people who are homeless. The students experienced a taste of what it’s like to live like these homeless teens, choosing to spend the night outside, braving the cold and wind without the comfort of being in a bed or with a roof over their heads.

Earlier in the evening—together with faculty advisor Rabbi Richard Kirsch and RKYHS alumna and one of the original members of the Homelessness Awareness Committee Lindsey Blenden, RKYHS ’15—the students went to serve hot chocolate and doughnuts and distribute wrapped holiday gifts and winter scarves to the homeless in Newark’s Penn Station.

Prior to the evening, the students reached out to family and friends to solicit donations to help the homeless. All proceeds went to support Covenant House, which has shelter facilities in various cities around the country, including one in Newark. Covenant House Street Outreach Teams and Residential and Community Service Center programs care for over 50,000 at-risk and homeless children and teens in 27 cities in the United States, Canada and Central America.