Did anybody else catch the KCRA story on the Jesuit boys camping out in Friendship park last night to learn how homeless people live? No, not helping the homeless people, just pretending to be homeless for 24 hours. Because otherwise, how are we supposed to know if living on the street in the rain with no money is all it’s cracked up to be?
Full disclosure: I’m a Jesuit grad (what up ’94!), so I am not going to deal in generalities here. This situation is more about this specifics: you needed to see the report to get the full flavor. From Leticia Ordaz calling spending a night in the rain because you’re homeless “roughing it,” to the concept of needing to play homeless to understand what it might be like, to film crews taping sleeping homeless people, this KCRA piece did not depict Catholic charity at its finest.
The Sac Rag 
That is awesomely ridiculous. In other words they went camping without a trip to REI first? I saw a story earlier this week about some fraternity that was doing a fundraiser in the same way and I thought it was so stupid until they said they had raised $250,000 for charity last year doing it. How on earth did they make that much? I can’t imagine. But otherwise it seems kind of silly.
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It reminded my wife and i (you should meet her, you’d hit it off) of fraternity benefits for WEAVE and similar charities for victims of sexual abuse, which always seemed like they were admitting to being a primary cause of such abuse in the first place. No offense if any sigma chi dudes read this. Dude!!
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Your wife sounds cool. I heard she’s hot, bro. Just trying to join in on the frat style.
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Haha. That’s funny. This is the same kind of thinking that has some nonprofits paying $hit for wages so that their workers can “feel their clients’ pain.” Whatever.
Now, if this had been a fundraiser and raised a ton of dough for Loaves and Fishes, maybe that would be different.
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Hello, I am Michael Quiniola and i was one of the boys down at friendship park.
The rest of the ones who went with me agree, that article was blown out of porportion. This “Plunge Immersion trip” has been going on for years.
Apparently a student tipped off the news station and we were mad, because it would have ruined the experience for us if it weren’t for Garren (the director at friendship park) telling them they couldnt be there in the morining past 5:30.
The only thing about us sleeping in the park was for student safety, or else they wouldnt allow us to do it.
This was not “Catholic Charity” as you call it. But an experience to promote awareness inside those who went. So please dont take the article for what it it.
~Quiniola ’07
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michael, i am perfectly willing to shift the target of snark to the KCRA channel. thanks for reading!
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