People living in poverty or homeless deserve a chance to live a healthy life, says high school students at the Teen Survival Challenge.
The weekend-long survival challenge concluded with a pancake breakfast at the Cumberland Street Salvation Army on Sunday. Students ate heartily after their experience of living without a house over their head and living in poverty at Current River Park. The Salvation Army offered the challenge to students between the ages 14 to 18.
Cheyenne Richmond, 15, said the challenge opened her eyes to how some people live with next to nothing. Her first time participating in the challenge, Cheyenne did odd jobs to earn enough money to afford shelter and food. She said it was a difficult experience.
"You should help people who are homeless," Cheyenne said. "You should also appreciate what you have more."
Cheyenne also won $150 in a draw and said she planned to give the money to her dad for a birthday present.
Devan Rigo, 15, said he wanted to do something to help people and with help from friends and family, he raised about $1,200 and donated it to the Salvation Army.
"You got to help people that are having a hard time in life," Devan said. "Everyone is human and everyone deserves to live a good, healthy life."
Devan said he had a great time at the challenge and planned to participate again next year.
Gail Kromm, public relations for the Salvation Army, said the number of students who participated in the challenge decreased by about 42 from last year. Other events scheduled at the same time as the survival challenge may have affected the number of students who participated, she said.
On Saturday, rain added to the experience for the participants seeking shelter. The rain and cold added to the experience of what someone goes through when their homeless, she said.
"I think some of them wondered if they were going to make it through the night," Kromm said. "It’s OK to hang out in the park when it’s sunny and warm but when you’re trying to sleep and its damp and wet it is not so comfortable."
The number of mats used by people seeking shelter at the Salvation Army increased in the last year. Kromm said before, it was rare for people to come and sleep on the mats but became so full that people slept on the floor and added the poor economy and addiction issues probably contributed to the reason why people were using the mats more.
For next year, Kromm said they planned to take a new approach to try to increase the number of students to participate.
