Youths from two area churches gathered in an open area in Becker last Friday to construct cardboard box homes to bring awareness to homelessness in the surrounding communities.

 

Youth Pastors Doug Watercott and Chris Salvevold of Mary of the Visitation and Becker Evangelical Churches joined forces and held their annual box city event — this time on the grounds of the Becker Catholic Church along Sherburne Avenue.

 

Kids participating in the box city fundraiser lined the boulevard Friday evening with cardboard signs written with the words, “Honk for the homeless,” hoping to get cars to lay on their horns in support of their cause.

 

The weather Friday afternoon and evening was ideal, with plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures — a far cry from some of the box city events they’ve held where rain and even snow had put a damper on the kids’ efforts.

 

Approximately 40 youths from the two churches participated in Friday’s event.

 

During the time leading up to the box city event, the youths are asked to collect cardboard and boxes, tape, tarps and their sleeping bags to bring to the field to put together the artificial homes. They were also tasked with going around their communities, asking for donations to be donated to their purpose.

 

After building the small shelters Friday evening, the kids spent a lot of the time playing frisbee, kickball, catch and football. Blake Soenneker, Dylan Winter, Tarin Danielson and Adam Thelen combined to build their “BAT-D Complex”, using their first names’ initials to comprise the acronym.

 

Allie Loken, Brittany Kostek and Talia Loken created a compound that featured separate rooms for sleeping as well as areas they could pretend to be watching TV on cardboard box TVs with cardboard remote controls.

 

A huge pot of Ramen noodles was boiling to keep the kids fed and a bonfire with a couple of inspirational speakers occurred as the sun started to set.

 

Denice Freih of the Great River Area Faith in Action organization was one of the scheduled speakers and she captivated the youthful minds with stories of personal experiences with homelessness and presented the kids with great ideas on helping those less fortunate than themselves. She also brought along a backpack and canvas bag that included toiletry items, bottles of water, snacks, books and greeting cards she suggests kids could carry with them in their cars and hand out to the homeless as they see them on street corners and sidewalks.

 

Another inspirational speaker for Friday night’s function was from a young man (we’ll call him Rob) from the surrounding area who professes he is homeless. Last year Rob just so happened to come upon the group’s box city event in Big Lake and declared he was homeless and was looking for something to eat.

 

Since last year, this young man has been an integral part of Watercott’s life and showed up this past Friday to do a Q&A with the youth group he was so generously accepted into.

 

At the end of Rob’s talk, Freih presented the young man with the backpack and bag she had packed full of items and Rob just beamed with gratitude as he took his seat.

 

Before settling in for the night, the youth members gathered around Rob, Watercott and Freih and laid their hands on them and issued fervent prayers for their inciteful presentations.

 

All the money raised by the youths for the homeless was dedicated to their newfound friend, Rob.