About Mychal's Message: Home Sweet Home Project

Teens sleep outside in cardboard boxes to experience homelessness as temperature drops into the 40’s
by Mychal's Message

LANCASTER, Pa. – September 21 – Sixty-five teenagers spent Saturday night , September 15, outside in cardboard boxes in Mychal’s Village, a makeshift homeless village built on the back parking lot of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, Lancaster. Students were offered no meals throughout the night, only water, in an effort to raise awareness for the true discomforts of the homeless.

Mychal’s Village was built in memory of FDNY Chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, who was killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The project was created and named “Home Sweet Home” by Shannon Hickey, a Senior at Lancaster Catholic High School, two years ago as a way to educate her peers about her experiences with the homeless. This year marks the third annual “Home Sweet Home” event. Teens paid $9.11 to secure their spots in the village and also secured sponsors for the overnight stay. Nearly $5,000 was raised, which will benefit the homeless in New York City, Lancaster, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. This year’s T.L.O.A. Awards were presented to Sarah and Rachel Konkolic of Bloomsburg, Pa. who gained the greatest number of sponsors and raised the most money. The sisters, both home-schooled, together raised $1,700 to spend the night in Mychal’s Village.

Cardboard refrigerator boxes, donated by L.H. Brubaker’s Appliances, Strasburg, Pa., served as “homes” for the teens who visited stations at the beginning of the night where they created packages of diapers for homeless babies at St. Francis Inn, Philadelphia, Pa. and packages of school supplies for the Homeless Student Project, Lancaster, Pa. Students also named teddy bears in a “Prayer Bear” project. Father Mychal’s prayer was translated into Arabic and attached to the bears, which will be sent to children in war-torn Iraq later this month.

Created and donated by Scott McCrabb of The Stone Guys, Lancaster, Pa., an 8-foot high by 12-foot wide city skyline was added to the village this year to give the students an appreciation of being homeless in the middle of a busy city, as well as a 12-foot high church front with working lights and stained glass window. In the center of the village was Christ’s home, painted sparkling gold, with a large crucifix inside, along with a basket of grapes and wheat to symbolize Christ’s presence in the village. Street signs were scattered throughout the cardboard boxes, named appropriately Poverty Place, Shelter Street, Hunger Boulevard, and Saint Francis Way.

Mary Ellen Reitmeyer, Youth Minister of St. Leo the Great, Lancaster, Pa., welcomed the teens and invited them to participate in a warm-up exercise that encouraged teamwork and trust.

Kelly Lynch of Mychal’s Message, Lancaster, Pa. thanked the teens for coming and spoke about those in her life whose footsteps she has followed, including those of Father Mychal Judge. “Every moment in your life is your chance to make a difference,” she told the 65 teens who attended. “Whose footsteps will you walk in?” she asked them.

Top speakers from the National Coalition for the Homeless shared their stories about being homeless. First, Michael O’Neill, Speakers’ Bureau Coordinator, shared overwhelming statistics with the students. “Did you know that there are more animal shelters in the United States,” he asked them, “than homeless shelters?” Speaker Francine Triplett had the students laughing and smiling as she humbly shared the story of how she became homeless after years of abuse. “When you cut me, I bleed too,” she told them, in an effort to show the teens that the homeless are just like them. “There is nothing worse than being homeless,” said speaker John Harrison, “than being homeless with cold, wet feet.” He shared the story of how he lost his job, his house, and then his car, and ultimately became homeless. “It’s hard on the streets,” he told the students, before singing a song he wrote about being homeless. Speaker David Pirtle told the teens about his affliction with schizophrenia, and how his symptoms led him to the loss of his job as a restaurant manager in Arizona, and ultimately the loss of his home. He explained how he traveled across the country, mostly by hitchhiking and freight hopping, eventually arriving in New York City. “One night I woke up completely covered in rats,” he told the teens, “and you know what you do when you wake up in the middle of the night covered in rats?” he asked them. “You simply go back to sleep.” All were phenomenal speakers that enlightened the teens and gave them a true appreciation for homelessness.

Will Hayducsko of Washington, NJ, and Krysia Tremont of Newark, DE, dressed in African clothing, shared their experiences of living in an African village with the Peace Corps. “These people are not homeless,” Will explained, “and if they’re poor – they don’t know it.” He encouraged the teens to respond to their inner calling to serve others.

Father Leo Goodman of St. Mary’s Church, Lancaster, Pa. performed “Magical Revelations” for the students near the end of the evening, a program created to bring the truth of the Gospel and Jesus’ teachings to others through the use of visual arts and modern stage illusions. As he broke through what appeared to be an impossibly unbreakable chain-linked fence, he likened it to the chains that bound St. Peter. Teens were invited to participate, and Father Leo mysteriously levitated one teen as others curiously looked on in awe.

“One of the most enjoyable aspects of the evening was the homeless friend project,” said one of the teens who attended Saturday’s event. Divided into ten groups, teens were asked to choose a homeless friend (a stuffed mannequin), dress him, give him an identity and a story, and help him overcome an obstacle during the night. One group searched all through the village for 5 gold coins, which served as bail money to get their homeless friend out of jail. Another group searched for a pair of sneakers after their homeless friend’s were stolen while he was sleeping on a park bench. The project was the brainchild of Sharon Hickey, Lancaster, Pa. who created the homeless mannequins last year, in an effort to give the teens a hands-on approach in dealing with the homeless.

To understand what is offered to the homeless by Mychal’s Message, the non-profit organization that created and sponsored the event, teens were given a special surprise of cookies and milk, along with bedtime stories, before the evening concluded. Cookies were baked by Andrea Petrillo, Lancaster, Pa., and her daughters, Andi and Juli.

Father William Sullivan of St. Leo the Great Church celebrated mass with the students at 7:30 a.m. with music provided by Joe Lynch, Mary Ellen Genoese and Jim Darby, all who stayed awake through the night with the teens.

The event concluded in the morning as the teens walked on a Breadline for breakfast.

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This page was last updated on: September 20, 2007.

Mychal's Message, Inc. is registered as a charitable organization with the Department of State's Bureau of Charitable Organizations under the Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act, 10 P.S. Section 16.2 et seq., and is authorized to solicit charitable contributions under the conditions and limitations set forth under the Act. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of State, Bureau of Charitable Organizations