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KEY CLUB IS HOMELESS FOR AN EVENING
“Caring for their community is their motto and service through leadership is their vision.”


These girls spent the evening in a cardboard box as part of the Key Club’s
“Be Homeless” fundraiser for Maureen’s Haven.

(October, 2004) When the Key Club advisor, Louise Wilkinson, shared her concern about the increasing population of economically-depressed families on the East End and the growing number of homeless families and individuals, members of the RHS Key Club wanted to do something to help. So, to draw attention to the issue and to raise funds for Maureen’s Haven, a relatively new program sponsored by the Peconic Community Council, the students decided to organize a cardboard box campout, which they dubbed “Be Homeless”.

They wanted to see what it was really like for many people who are without housing or heat, so they found and decorated large boxes, brought blankets, sleeping bags and pillows from home and camped out in the high school’s inner courtyard for an evening. The campout was preceded by a pizza party and a jam session, but when the clock struck midnight, out they went into the raw October evening—and in the process gained a new outlook on what some homelsess individuals have to deal with every day on Long Island.

On his way back into the school the next morning, stiff, cold and tired, one briefly homeless young man declared, "If I'm ever homeless, I'm going to be homeless in Hawaii."

About 30 students left their warm suburban bedrooms for the evening and were able to raise $1,500 for Maureen’s Haven and hopefully some awareness about the growing problem of hunger and homelessness on the East End.

The students received information about Maureen's Haven and had a dialogue with speakers and community representatives. One of the speakers was Charlie Stroebel, who started a similar program called "A Room at the Inn" in Nashville, TN. His program was one of the models for Maureen's Haven, named for a Dominican Sister of Hope, Maureen Michael, who tried to set up a similar program on the East End of Long Island 18 years ago.

According to their brochure, “The goal of Maureen’s Haven is to provide safe, warm, temporary housing to homeless individuals from November through April. Transportation to and from a house of worship is included in the service provided. Dinner and breakfast are provided by volunteers. . . It is an effort (by the Peconic Housing Initiative and area churches) to reach out to the disenfranchised and invisible homeless in Eastern Suffolk.”

Board of Education member Kathleen V. Berezny, who also attended the event, put her stamp of approval on the students' effort, "This was a great event. I'm very proud of these students."

This is just one of the many worthwhile community service efforts students from the Key Club and Riverhead High School engage in throughout the school year.