Bridge Communities raising awareness about homelessness with 'Sleep Out Saturday' event this weekend
CHICAGO (CBS) – People in DuPage County are getting ready to snuggle up and sleep outside and in their cars this weekend.
It's part of an annual initiative by the Bridge Communities Transitional Housing Program as a way to raise money and awareness about homelessness in their community.
The goal of the Sleep Out event is to raise $35,000 to support services and housing for more than 100 families the Bridge Communities serve each year.
Veronica Horton, a case manager at Bridge Communities in Wheaton, knows what the homeless families she works with are going through because she's gone through it herself.
She says it happened in an instant 13 years ago.
"In the morning, I was making breakfast," she said. "And by evening, I was touring a homeless shelter," she said. "The next day, my two kids and I moved into Lazarus House."
That experience is why Horton will be one of more than 1,000 participants in Bridge Communities' 19th annual Sleep Out Saturday event to raise money and bring awareness to the issue of family homelessness.
Horton is taking it a step further. Beginning Friday, she will sleep in her van in a DuPage parking lot for as long as it takes her to raise $35,000.
Since then, she has raised more than $11,000 and she's not done. You can donate here.
More than 75 groups, including families, churches, and businesses, will sleep outside Saturday in tents, cardboard boxes or cars in DuPage County.
