Crashing on the Quad
Sub-freezing temperatures didn’t stop students from spending the night on the Quad.
On Friday Utah State University students participated in Night on the Quad- Homeless Awareness by sleeping in shelters made out of cardboard boxes to gain an understanding for homeless people.
Two service oriented clubs, Students Together Ending Poverty and Habitat for Humanity, teamed up to put on the event.
Night on the Quad kicked off with a flag ceremony and a speech by Juan Franco, vice president for student services at USU.
Barbecued hot dogs and green, Thai curry were served to students at no cost and entertainment was provided by several bands including Dubious Ash, Tanner Jones and the Rock Bandits.
Every hour or so different speakers addressed issues dealing with poverty and homelessness in Cache Valley.
Prizes that included gift certificates from local businesses and USU merchandise were awarded to students who could correctly answer questions about homelessness.
Charlie Hennick, director of STEP and a junior majoring in international marketing and broadcast, explained how homelessness is close to his heart because he was on his own from the age of 5 until he was 12. Hennick was born in Thailand and was adopted by a Utah family in Hyrum after being homeless for about seven years.
Hennick said he wants to bring students together and make them aware of the poverty that exists here in Logan. He encouraged students to get active in service “to have a good time, serve the community and make a lot of good friends.”
He said there are 16 organizations in the service center, to help students get the “peace of heart” that comes from service.
Joyce Albrecht, the wife of USU President Stan Albrecht, commended the Service Center for reaching out to those in need.
“My new role as first lady is to continue to work with the students improving the community and Cache Valley,” she said.
Albrecht came for some of the festivities but didn’t sleep on the Quad.
The activity with the most participation was the cardboard shelter building contest. Cardboard boxes were provided for use by the students, but they were required to provide their own duct tape. The cardboard box houses ranged from elaborate structures with six-foot ceilings to downright shabby lean-tos. Spray paint, cut out windows and signs helped decorate the structures.
Ryan “Beaver” Miller, a sophomore in marketing who will be the director of habitat for humanity next year, teamed up with a group of friends to build his cardboard house. They used old 2-by-4s to serve as a frame which they then nailed cardboard to.
“We got the wood from a torn-down barn in Benson,” Miller said.
Miller and his friends piled the wood into his Toyota Camry to haul it up to the Quad. Miller said that their cardboard house would be an “engineering marvel.”
Last year Miller won the cardboard house building contest and received a trophy from Deseret Industries. This year the winner received a USU blanket.
Some students who constructed cardboard shelters were not motivated to build because of the prizes or prestige. They just wanted to use their creativity to have fun.
“We didn’t know there was [a contest]. We just wanted to make a box house,” Chelsea Faunce, a junior in psychology, said.
“We were planning to build a castle but we didn’t have enough boxes,” said Aaron Avery, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering.
Things got really busy at midnight when couples flocked to the “A” for True Aggie Night. After True Aggie Night students stayed up till about 1:30 a.m., mingling and dancing to live music.
At around 7 a.m. Saturday morning when the sun came out, students began emerging from cardboard buildings and piles of sleeping bags. Some were shivering, tired and ragged from a night of partying and sub-freezing temperatures.
“It was fun I guess. Cold.” said Matt Flygare, a freshman majoring in journalism.
McKell Jeppesen, a freshman majoring in biology, was there in the morning, but said she didn’t stay all night. She had to walk back to her apartment because she had to go to the bathroom. “I had to come back though because I had my friend’s shoes on,” she said.
Jeppesen wasn’t the only one who had to leave during the night.
“Our [cardboard] house blew over and we left,” said Ashli Robison, a sophomore majoring in journalism.
Robison’s friend, Heidi Lamb an undeclared sophomore, said, “We wussed out. We went and slept on our apartment floor and watched Jerry Springer.”
“I was freezing,” said Adrienne Johnson, a junior majoring in community health education. “My friend and I ended up double bagging our sleeping bags and getting in the same one, because we thought we’d get hypothermia.”
Night on the Quad – Homeless Awareness was believed to be a success by organizers.
“I thought it went great. It was really a sacrifice for people to stay out here because it was so cold,” said Nellene Howard, adviser at the Service Center and 2002 USU graduate.
-nnaylor@cc.usu.edu
The morning after the Night on the Quad activity, students stack the many boxes that had been used as shelter over the night. The activity was sponsored by Habitat for Humanity and S.T.E.P. (Photo by Jamie Crane)
(Photo by Jamie Crane)