Exeter residents take on chilly charity challenge
Over forty individuals slept out at St James Park, home of Exeter City Football Club to raise money and awareness for a local charity on Friday 17th March.
Families and friends ditched their beds and spent a night under the stars to raise funds for Julian House. The charity supports over 1,600 people in over 40 projects across the South-West who are facing homelessness, escaping domestic abuse, refugees and more.
Temperatures dropped and there were intermittent rain showers as people bedded down for the night with just sleeping bags, roll mats and cardboard to keep warm.
The event had great support from brave pupils from primary schools across Devon, including Exmouth Primary School, South Molton Primary School and Hennock Primary School. The Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Rob Newby also kindly visited the event, to greet participants and thank them for taking on the challenge.
While munching on a well-deserved bacon sandwich one participant said “It was a night of poor sleep but very worthwhile to raise money for Julian house to do invaluable work”
Event Organiser Annabelle Lowes said “We are thrilled that the Exeter community has once again come out to support this event and give up their bed for the night. We understand how hard people are finding it to ask for donations during the current economic circumstances, and we are incredibly grateful to everybody that took part and raised money for Julian House.”
Obviously sleeping out for one night does not come close to the realities of homelessness. It does however give people the chance to empathise with those who are forced to sleep rough every night, as well as start a conversation about homelessness, and those that took part certainly did just that. Sponsorship is currently around £4500 which is great and we’re expecting even more to come in.
Without events like these and the help of our supporters, we really could not provide our essential life-saving services.”
The event organisers would like to thank Exeter City Community Trust, Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Rob Newby, Rapid Relief, Ablou Security and Tesco Exe Vale for their support.
