ShawneeDispatch.com

Keeping your chin up the day after being homeless may be even tougher than spending a cold, rainy night trying to fall asleep in a cardboard box.

Such was the lesson for about 150 Shawnee Mission Northwest High School students who participated in Sleep in a Box last week. After spending Wednesday night in cardboard boxes on the track, Northwest students tackled a day of class -- and even track meets -- with little shuteye, no showers and more than a few sore backs to boot.

The event, an annual effort to raise money and awareness about homelessness, included a visit from Mary K. Meyer, director of Shalom House in Kansas City, Kan., as well as two men who live in the shelter.

Johnson County seems to have fewer homeless people than many other parts of the metro area, said sophomore Tiffany Baker. But for that reason, youth in the county may also have the least awareness.

Shalom House volunteer Brad Grabs said appearances could be deceiving, as the uptown shelter frequently serves homeless men from the suburbs.

"It's not that there aren't homeless people in Johnson County," he said. "It's just that there aren't homeless shelters."

Homeless people come from all different backgrounds and levels of society or education, Grabs said. Unexpected events ranging from physical or mental illness to incarceration or divorce are all culprits, he said.

Grabs said he thought events like Sleep in a Box helped raise empathy about homelessness, which is more far-reaching and easier to fall into than most might expect.

"It makes the situation of homelessness more realistic in that the kids, I think, are beginning to realize that homelessness is not a problem of people that are very much unlike them," Grabs said.

Baker said the two homeless men's stories contrasted the security felt by many well-off Johnson County youth. But, like Grabs said, homelessness could happen to anybody, she said.

"A lot of us kids don't think that anything bad would ever happen to us," Baker said.

Senior Allison Hunt agreed that it was easy for those separated from the problem to overlook it. But the one-night-a-year Sleep in a Box experience was constant reality for many, she said.

"There are kids our age who do that every day and go to school without a shower, not because they woke p late but because they don't have one," Hunt said.

Most Northwest participants chose to wear sweat pants and Sleep in a Box T-shirts they had made for the event, leaving them on for the next day at school.

In case tired eyes weren't obvious enough, junior Justin Cohenour said the T-shirts helped draw a little slack from teachers, sending a message like "Please don't call on me, I just spent all night outside on the ground."

Hunt said the day got more difficult after the first few hours, when feeling grimy and tired after a fitful night's sleep on the track started catching up with students.

Coupled with testimonies by the men from Shalom House, Hunt said that was one reason students saw how homelessness could be difficult to dig out from.

"There are people out there who sleep like that and then have to go to job interviews," Hunt said.

The Northwest student council organized Sleep in a Box for the fourth or fifth year in a row.

This year's event was open to members of Student Council, National Honor Society, Cougars Community Commitment, Key Club and varsity drill team. There was one adult sponsor, mostly parents and a few teachers, for every five students.

Each participant was asked to donate a minimum of $35 to Shalom House, Hunt said. The total donation was about $6,000.

Cohenour said sleeping in a box for just one night with breakfast, plenty of sleeping bags and even porta-potties was luxury compared to true homelessness, but it still got the point across.

"It's a far cry from being able to sleep in a nice bed with a house," he said. "And a shower."