New project aims to aid homeless

BY VICTIORIA THEORET

Thirty men and women gathered outside Dawson College on a Saturday night recently despite the freezing temperatures. They were all there to help make the Homeless Project’s inaugural event a success.

Dorval resident and social work student Sabrina Carroll, 23, and fellow classmate Laura Amer, 30, started the project. The group plans to bring food and clothing to the homeless in métro stations and parks in and around Montreal.

Amer was motivated after watching a newscast only a few weeks ago. “It has been something that I have always wanted to do. It was not until I heard about the three homeless people who died in the cold a few weeks ago that I decided it was time to mobilize.”

Initially, they began their quest with an extensive e-mail campaign.

“At first there was not a great response,” said Carroll, as she passed around bags of bread to the volunteers, “but people that did answer the e-mail have been very

generous. People are donating their time, cars and food.”

Carroll and Amer, with the help of St. Columba House, managed to cook 80 spaghetti dinners for distribution. New Life in Christ Youth Group from the Parish of St. Arsene donated another 20 cooked meals.

IGA Vallée in Lachine also contributed to the group, by donating all the bread that accompanied the meals.

Carroll and Amer also teamed up with the social services program at Dawson, with the help of Shirley Watkins, one of its teachers. She was able to come up with the volunteers — students from her class.

The two women, with the help of many volunteers, loaded up the cars. They divided up the many bags of clothing

collected and all the hot meals. Within a matter of 20 minutes, the 30 volunteers got into the stocked cars, and off they went.

The cars were planning to split up through the course of the night, to allow for a wider range of locations to be reached.

“All we want to do is go out there and show the homeless people in Montreal is that there are people who care about them. If we can offer a few people who live on the streets a little bit of comfort, then we have done a good deed,”

Amer said.

The Homeless Project is running solely on a donation basis. Its goal for this year is to be able to bring meals and clothing out once a month. The next date planned will be the last Saturday in February. To donate time, food or clothing,

contact Amer by e-mail at lauraamer@hotmail.com.