The Long, Long Night of Hope 2017, a fundraiser campaign to support the homeless primarily in North Vancouver, is now in full swing! The goal is to raise $10,000, to be donated to The Lookout Emergency Aid Society of North Vancouver.
The organizers are looking for your help, your participation and your promotion! Please, spread the word and encourage warriors of social justice to join us on our journey! More participants are needed, from other churches, from businesses and municipal government.
The Long, Long Night of Hope 2017 starts with fundraising: the process is to use an online peer-to-peer fundraiser where individuals create their own page, set their own personal goal (recommended is $500, but you can set any number you want) and explain why they are taking part. That page is then shared hrough social media and email, creating awareness so that contacts can contribute whatever they can, engaging the community in their fundraising. Like the story of Stone Soup, one person can do very little but when each person does their part, it can become a whole lot!
The fundraiser campaign culminates with The Long, Long Night of Hope 2017, on Saturday February 25th 2017. That night, participants will come to St. John's Anglican Church in North Vancouver, 220 West 8th Street for a sleepover of another kind. Like one-third of the homeless population in the Greater Vancouver area, those individuals will sleep in their cars ... in the dead of winter ... on the street. Others have opted to sleep on the hard wooden pews in the sanctuary, just like many individuals do downtown when the weather becomes fierce. This way, they will have just a tiny taste of what it is like to be homeless, and they can share that experience via social media to build awareness and compassion.
The Long, Long Night of Hope 2017 will end with a special service that celebrates hope and community service.
Here is the link to the fundraising site. Anyone who wants to participate can register there - a $30 registration fee is charged to offset the costs of online fundraising, so every dollar raised goes to The Lookout Emergency Aid Society of North Vancouver. Once registered, participants may create their personal fundraising page, and there are links there to directly share to email, Facebook, Twitter and more.