Fort Worth Middle School Students Share Homeless Experience
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FORT WORTH (NewsRadio 1080 KRLD) – Middle school students at the All Saints Episcopal School experienced the horrors of homelessness first-hand by sleeping on the streets for a night.
The experience is part of what the school calls Project Empathy, and eighth grader Wyatt Wilson, 14, says it was a life-changing experience.
"It was kind of mind-opening to see what homeless people have to go through every day," says Wilson.
Students arrived for school as normal yesterday; but instead of going home, they spent the night outside with only a sleeping bag, a pillow, a toothbrush and toothpaste.
Friday morning, they prayed about their experience in chapel.
It was eighth grader Carson Brown's second year participating. She says her experience last year helped her get through the night.
"I really paid attention to it and it made me feel better to know that I was helping," Brown, 14, says.
It was also the second go-around for eighth grader Cierra Bennett, 14. She says it makes her understand the plight of the homeless.
"We got a chance to live like people in poverty and homeless people," Bennett says.
The project is led by Spanish teacher Kelsey De La Torre. The Spanish teacher says the experience was challenging for her too.
"Being a mother of a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, you would think I was used to being deprived of sleep," De La Torre says.
John Spinks is a seventh grader who turned 13 years old in the middle of the exercise. He says it's a birthday experience he will not soon forget.
"Even though it was my birthday, it was still really amazing just to know that that was how it felt, not just when you're looking at them normal every day and you say, 'Oh, there's a homeless person,' " Spinks says. "When you're actually experiencing it, you can see that all of it's just so much more than that."
Middle school principal Michael Gonzalez says the project has evolved with each passing year.
"I think everybody's a lot more interested in it," Gonzalez says. "When I say that, I'm talking about the entire school (not just the participating middle schoolers)."
Eighth grader Cami Krzeminski, 14, says actually living the homeless experience gives her a new sense of perspective.
"People tell you about what it's like to not have a home. . . but it's totally different when you experience it," Cami says.
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