Church youths "chill out".On the night of October 29, when overnight temperatures in Minnesota are generally more winter-like than fall-like, almost two dozen youth members of New Horizons United Methodist Church United Methodist Church, in the United States, religious body formed by the union in 1968 of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church (see Methodism). in St. Cloud spent the night in cardboard boxes cardboard box n → caja de cartón cardboard box n → (boîte f en) carton m cardboard box card n → on the grounds of the church. No, they had not had arguments with their parents and moved out--nor were they waiting for the Great Pumpkin pumpkin, common name for the genus Cucurbita of the family Cucurbitaceae (gourd family), a group that includes the pumpkins and squashes—the names may be used interchangeably and without botanical distinction. C. to arrive two nights before Halloween. Their exercise was designed to develop empathy empathy Ability to imagine oneself in another's place and understand the other's feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. The empathic actor or singer is one who genuinely feels the part he or she is performing. and raise funds for homeless people. "We decided to do something overnight--and a little more extreme--to raise more money and awareness" for homelessness, Rachelle Ireland, leader of the church's youth group, said in an interview with the St. Cloud Times. The overnight campers, ranging in age from 12 to 18, were accompanied by equally hardy adult chaperones. Each "camper" had his or her own cardboard box. Ireland told the paper that the "children have already learned the closer they put their boxes together, the warmer they'll be." A local furniture store donated the boxes, and two local pizzerias donated food. Each student was limited to a single backpack filled with whatever provisions or supplies he thought he would need. The exercise was intended to raise awareness of a problem--young people about the same age as the youth group members who wind up living on the streets. "Often kids think that when they have a fight with their parents, they have nowhere to go [but the streets]," Ireland explained. "Without a home, most teens wind up on the streets selling drugs or in prostitution prostitution, act of granting sexual access for payment. Although most commonly conducted by females for males, it may be performed by females or males for either females or males. because those are the only types of jobs that they can get a hold of fast money--and it's very, very scary and happening in our own backyard." The youth group set as its objective raising $1,000 in donations for the Journey Home Halfway House halfway house /half·way house/ (haf´wa hous) a residence for patients (e.g., mental patients, drug addicts, alcoholics) who do not require hospitalization but who need an intermediate degree of care until they can return to the community. and collecting $1,000 worth of food for the Catholic Charities Food Shelf in St. Cloud. And, it is hoped, the event might teach more than one St. Cloud young person the folly folly In architecture, an eccentric, generally nonfunctional (and often deliberately unfinished) structure erected to enhance a romantic landscape. Follies were particularly in vogue in England in the 18th and early 19th century. of leaving home and the importance of prompt reconciliation with parents before the fact. |
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