Florida State Sigmas host 11th Sleep Out for the Homeless

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Florida State University sophomore Jeanine Suah dealt with the cold and exhaustion by dancing the night away. By 5 a.m. Sunday, she was exhausted and even though she didn’t sleep on the concrete at Oglesby Student Union that night, she definitely left with a better sense of what the homeless go through.

Suah was one of the more than 200 students who participated in the 11th annual Mu Epsilon Chapter of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity “Sleep Out for the Homeless,” a charitable donation drive that ran from 9 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday.

“It helps me to remember to not take things for granted,” Suah said. “You see homeless people and a lot are quick to judge but they are human beings just like us.”

Students and members of the community donated clothing, food and blankets to the fraternity, who in turn delivered the goods to The Shelter.

“I saw about eight to nine cars full of clothing and non-perishable items,” Suah said. “I was amazed and humbled to see that people actually care about the community.”

While there was video game entertainment provided by EA Sports as well as music and food, the idea was to experience what a homeless person goes through night after night.

Cardboard boxes were provided to sleep on, though some found comfier spots on benches and even on the bags of donated clothing.

And many wrapped themselves in blankets for protection from the cold, which National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Mroczka said dropped to the lower 40s.

“I heard the grunts and moans,” event chair Jason Alter, a member of Phi Beta Sigma, said, “and that is one day of your life. Imagine living every day of your life like that.”

Florida A&M University’s Gamma Sigma Sigma and FSU’s Sigma Gamma Rho supplied breakfast and when the campus police shut down music provided by a DJ at 1 a.m., a smaller boom box kept the crowd going.

Nine Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brothers and five students were all that was left by 6 a.m. and one lucky, yet groggy, survivor won a $50 gift card to Publix.

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