For the past 20 years, students from École Secondaire Catholique Thériault have spent a night camping outside in the school yard with nothing but a cardboard box and a tarp. They call it Homeless Night (Soirée sans Abris). The school doesn’t do it because it’s fun, they do it to show students what some people can be going through in life. 

Each year, this night always attracts many students, but there can only be so many students that can be a part of the experience, so they usually chose 50-75 students by a random draw. If the students are picked to take part in the homeless night, they each have to raise a minimum of 75 dollars. Then they do more fundraising on Theriault Boulevard for about 1-2 hours during their 24 hour homeless experience.

The following day when everything is over and done with and the students hopefully survived the cold October night, all proceeds go towards local charities like: The Yo Mobile, Lords Kitchen, Project Love, Timmins and South Porcupine Food Banks, and many more. This year, they managed to surpass last year’s grand total of $4650! The students that took part in the Homeless night raised a total of $6200!!!

The amount of money raised has gone up each year since the Homeless night became a thing at Theriault back in 1999, and each year more students want to help make a difference in the homeless community here in Timmins. When the 21st Annual Homeless night comes back around next year, Theriault is already anticipating an even bigger sign up list, and hope to beat that $6200.

Filed under: Local News