In 12 cities across two countries, nearly 500 business executives, advocates and celebrities slept outside on the streets in freezing temperatures Thursday night to let homeless kids know they matter. The decades-old Covenant House was able to raise more than 11 million dollars in conjunction with events held across North America.
In 12 cities across two countries, nearly 500 business executives, advocates and celebrities slept outside on the streets Thursday night to let homeless kids know they matter.
Near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel in freezing temperatures, a band of 150 leaders in New York City spent the first part of the night talking with homeless kids and hurricane victims in the Covenant House New York shelter. Their message to our kids? You are not alone.
The decades-old Covenant House was able to raise more than 11 million dollars in conjunction with events held across North America.
Setting a beautiful example to elected leaders, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay slept out next to the Covenant House Missouri shelter and dozens of public officials, and community and business leaders tried to get some sleep sprawled outside on concrete in New Orleans. The experience demonstrated first hand what it is like to be a homeless kid, if only for a night.
In Toronto, Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke and Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair slept outside the Covenant House there with Dragons' Den star Arlene Dickinson and the shelter's executive director.
Other city leaders participated in Houston, Vancouver, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.covenanthouse.org.
(WATCH the Thank You video below, from Philadelphia youth)
The Occupy Wall Street movement, forever angry about government bail-outs for big banks, finally figured out a way to issue their own bail-outs -- this time, for the little guy. A group called Strike Debt launched a campaign last night, called Rolling Jubilee, that has already raised more than a quarter million dollars to buy up the debt owed by faceless Americans and cancel it, while just paying pennies on the dollar for the privilege. They call it, a bailout by the people, for the people.
This year, front row seats to see the marching bands and massive balloons of the iconic Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day parade will be occupied not by diplomats or corporate titans and their families, but by thousands of New Yorkers hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.
Occupy Wall Street has become a lauded and effective relief organization for victims of Sandy. The social media savvy that helped Occupy protesters create a grass-roots global movement last year is proving a strength as members fan out across New York to deliver aid including hot meals, medicine and blankets.
On October 24th, Michael Cali Moore, a National Guardsman, sent Dan, the anonymous founder of the Facebook page Awesome Sh*t My Drill Sergeant Said a message concerning another Guardsman who was planning on killing himself that night.
Ben Overstreet badly wanted to play football, but when he started his senior year at Gulf High School in 1949, he stood 5-feet-5 and weighed 105 pounds. He became the equipment manager and water boy. His heroic journey came later, after joining the Air Force and flying missions over Vietnam.
For 30 years, Gerard Thomas was among the 70,000 American veterans sleeping on the streets every night. As a paranoid schizophrenic he was in and out of prison and mental institutions for decades. These days, the 62-year-old devotes his life to helping homeless veterans.
They both have terminal cancer but Kathleen Rinard has only days to live and wanted to give her husband one final gift. He always wanted to ride in a Cobra convertible sports car, so Kathleen called an auto club for help. Instead of a single convertible rolling up to their Arizona hospice, 29 Cobras arrived revving their engines in a neat row outside.
Sometimes dead men really do get to vote. An elderly Michigan couple was filling out their absentee ballots in Michigan, when the man suddenly died. Luckily, a nearby nurse resuscitated the man, who, upon regaining consciousness, only cared about one thing -- voting.
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