Stepinac High School students recently slept outdoors overnight in cardboard boxes on the school”™s athletic fields in White Plains and raised more than $30,000 to help the unsheltered homeless in their communities.
In so doing, they continued what has become an annual Stepinac tradition of supporting the Cardboard Box City Campaign, organized by the school”™s Campus Ministry.
The students gained an understanding of the personal challenges that America”™s unsheltered homeless ”” estimated at more than a half-million individuals and families, including many who are children ”” experience.
In advance of the event, students were instructed to bring with them large cardboard boxes as well as blankets and pillows. They were also advised to eat dinner before arriving as their overnight stay would be a long one, lasting nearly 12 hours before ending at 8 a.m. the next day.
The success of the campaign was the result of the energy and generosity of the students who mobilized parents, friends, members of the administration, faculty and staff to join in lending their support.
The mission of Archbishop Stepinac High School is to offer young men of the Archdiocese of New York a highly competitive academic and extracurricular program that will prepare them for college and leadership roles.
