One Beard for the homeless

Many local campaigns this winter have been addressing the citizen's ability to step up and participate in relieving poverty. Hockey Helps the Homeless in Niagara has already raised $6,000 by individuals and Hockey teams who will play in a public tournament. Another successful campaign has been 5 Days for the Homeless.

Last year, Brock University raised over $2,000 in donations for the local charity, Community Care in St. Catharines and Thorold through the campaign run by Brock University's Business Students' Association (BSA).

Later in March, the five-day campaign will see students from across the country making personal sacrifices to support local charities. Students will forgo their comforts and live outside on campuses following certain guidelines such as avoiding the use of personal communication devices, relying on food and drink donations and enduring situations they fortunately will not have to experience outside the campaign.

The local charity, Community Care helps to provide a bridge between dependency and self-sufficiency through programs that create a positive environment for people to support themselves and their families with dignity and purpose. Many clients are primarily individuals or families in need including men and women with disabilities, the mentally challenged, the aged, newly landed immigrants, unemployed and the ever increasing number of working poor. 33 per cent of Community Care's clients are children, mostly of single parents. 41 per cent of all children live in a working poor family (they have one to two parents who have one or more jobs, yet they are living below the poverty level).

Clients are allowed to visit every other month or six times a year. In a day, Community Care can process as many as 150 families and over 450 people a day. They distribute approximately 3,000 pounds of food, including emergency bags for those who are experiencing difficulties. All distributed food is collected from the public, through local grocery stores (barrels, food drives, monetary donations and fundraisers).

In the past few months, Community Care has seen an increase of 15 per cent in new clients.

Matt Paulino, a third year Sociology student at Brock will also be taking part in a separate campaign to raise funds for Community Care. Paulino is determined to raise $1,000 through donations at the General Brock Store and Ontario Public Interest Research Group's (OPIRG) Fed Up program which runs Tuesday through Thursday between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the OPIRG office in the Student Alumni Centre.

Paulino was thinking about what he could do to incorporate his decision to finally shave his beard he has been growing since July with the fundraiser. He has been constantly pestered to shave, but decided it would benefit the fundraiser if he waited until the end of the 5 Days for the Homeless if his donation goal was met.

"I figured growing my beard out is the least I could do to raise money for Community Care and help support those who are in need of necessities," said Paulino.

After graduating this year, Paulino seeks to work for The Good Shepherd in Hamilton which addresses the needs of the community by encouraging personal and communal growth through awareness to social injustice.

"People always ask me ‘Why do you have a beard?' To me, it's such an odd question because it'd be like me asking ‘why do you have hair?' So, I like to answer this question with a quote from John Steinbeck:

I cultivate this beard not for the usual given reasons of skin trouble or pain of shaving, nor for the secret purpose of covering a weak chin, but as pure unblushing decoration, much as a peacock finds pleasure in his tail."

Students can empower themselves to start their own campaign for this cause. E-mail robb@5days.ca to bring 5 Days for the Homeless campaign to Brock University. For more information about Paulino's fundraiser and where you can donate, E-mail mp09gj@brocku.ca.