David Coon, MLA/Député

Author by : Jeremy Keefe
Video by : Jeremy Keefe

Young people came together to support a local homeless shelter for at-risk youth at the Twelve Hours for the Homeless fundraiser on the lawn of the New Brunswick Legislature Assembly Building on Saturday night.

Over 100 participants took part in the event, by raising money and building shelters out of cardboard to sleep in overnight.

“It’s our annual fundraiser for Youth in Transition Chrysalis House,” explained Executive Director Julie Gallant Daigle. “This event helps us raise awareness around youth homelessness and also helps us raise much-needed funds for the house to keep Chrysalis House up and running.”

The event, which has been held most years since the early ’90s, is one that organizers say benefits more than just local homeless youth, as those who aren’t at risk learn a valuable lesson by taking part.

“While this is a fundraiser, it’s also an awareness of homelessness in our community, particularly youth homelessness,” explained Youth Support Supervisor Sarah Caissie. “We do it this time of year on purpose because we do have to deal with the weather sometimes and contend with the elements.”

“It’s not just a big camp out,” she said. “It gives people a little taste of what those people sleeping on the streets have to deal with.”

“We’ve had rain, we’ve had flurries, it’s been warm, it’s been frosty,” said Gallant Daigle.

Fredericton South MLA David Coon participated in the event saying the work being done at Chrysalis House is commendable and more youth shelters like it are needed elsewhere in the province.

“That’s something that I can continue to push for inside the legislature walls,” he said. “Tonight I’m outside the legislature walls joining all these folks from Fredericton to support Youth in Transition.”

This year’s edition of Twelve Hours for the Homeless raised approximately $17,500