‘Sleep Out for the Homeless’ held at Western Kentucky University

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – At Western Kentucky University, students slept outside overnight to raise awareness to homelessness.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. came up with this initiative as part of their social action endeavors, an annual event the Sigmas at WKU enjoy putting on every year.

This year, they had speakers from the Bowling Green City Commission, Habitat for Humanity and the Barren River Area Safe Space to educate students on resources in the community.

The Epsilon Theta Chapter at WKU puts this event on every year to call attention to the issue of homelessness, take donations and, if you’re dedicated, sleep outside overnight from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

The chapter’s vice president, Michael Diugu, told News 40 he always says “you don’t know what you’re made of until you’re in the fire” and spoke on his favorite part of this annual event.

He said, “I feel like my favorite part about this event is just seeing all different faces, man. Like some things like this, like social acts. And I’m really passionate for it because you can tell, like, we all come from different walks of life, and we all just come together to support this cause.”

City commissioners Dana Beasley-Brown and Carlos Bailey were also present.

Bailey said, “So when you have a community of people that’s going to put on an event like this and talk about the causes and hopefully also talk about the solutions, it’s important for us to be here, even if we don’t speak, but be able to listen to other people, because I think that’s how we work as a community to solve some of these problems that we have going on.”

Beasley-Brown, who works at Bowling Green Junior High, said she wants to really encourage the younger generation to get involved in community action. She said she sees first-hand every day how many children in the city are teetering on homelessness.

The chapter is taking donations this year for hurricane victims. If you couldn’t make it this year, you can still drop off items in the Student Activities Department.