To try and bring awareness to homelessness in Harford County, Sharing Hope Foundation, the June DeLancey Beward Foundation, local pastors and residents will camp outside in cardboard boxes for 24 hours this weekend.
While this is just the beginning of what Harford's homeless go through every day, the upcoming benefit hopes to shed light on an issue many people don't realize the county has.
Home Sweet Nowhere: The Frozen and Forgotten in Our Community will be held from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday at Mount Zion Methodist Church, 1645 E. Churchville Road in Bel Air. People can also camp out 6 p.m. Friday to noon Sunday at Joppa-Magnolia Fire Company, 1403 Old Mountain Road South in Joppa.
Boxes will be provided, but participants should bring their own bedding.
"The main focus is awareness," Anne Marie Vomero-Battis, founder and executive director of Sharing Hope, said.
The idea for the foundation started from Vomero-Battis' time volunteering at a number of homeless shelters. She says she saw how overwhelming the number of homeless people was, and, on the other end of the spectrum, how little people in the community knew about the shelters.
"I found out most people didn't know we had one shelter let alone several," she said. Vomero-Battis felt she could use her voice, project management skills and various connections to spread the word and educate others.
Her first event was the Harford Fall Festival, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in October. The festival, which also promoted awareness and encouraged attendees to bring canned goods for local food pantries, has grown exponentially in its five years and pushed Vomero-Battis to continue her passion for helping others in need.
Eventually, more and more friends helped Vomero-Battis in her mission and Sharing Hope formed.
While the foundation holds several events throughout the year, this weekend's campout is a first for Sharing Hope.
The benefit will be a resource for people in need to get information, an outlet for those who want to help and a unified voice on a problem that has no solution in sight.
There will be resource tables with information on where people can receive help and representatives from the Harford County Government Department of Community Services, Harford Family House and various churches in the county.
There will also be a bake sale table — the idea of a 7-year-old boy who wanted to help the homeless and whose mom reached out to Sharing Hope to make it happen.
Vomero-Battis stressed that not everyone has to stay the full 24 hours, or even spend the night. The goal is to use everyone's "gift" for charity, she said, whether that is donating food to the bake sale table, donating blankets and winter gear or just being there in support.
"If everybody does their part, it all comes together," she said. "All of us working together makes it happen."
Those who want to camp overnight should contact Vomero-Battis, annemarie.sharinghope@yahoo.com.
The group will also be collectioning donations of clean and gently used blankets, sleeping bags, winter wear, non-perishable and ready-to-eat food, toilet paper, small bottles or boxes of laundry detergent, new toiletries, first aid items, diapers and baby wipes. Financial donations will also be accepted and will go toward the One Church One Home transitional housing program.