Sleep Out America

On Friday, March 11, 2022 parishes from South Florida Eastern District, gathered at Saint Mark Church in Boca Raton, Florida, to participate in Sleep-Out America. This has become an Annual event, in coordination with the Covenant House.

Parishes participating were Saint Mark – Boca Raton; Saint Sophia – Miami; Saint Andrew – Kendall; Saint Catherine – West Palm Beach; Saint Nicholas – Fort Pierce; Annunciation – Fort Meyers.

Together, these GOYANs raised over $16,500 to help combat homelessness. Two young faithful from Saint Mark, Ioanna Copulos and Stamatia Zaparegos, chaired the event.

The aim of this event is to provide awareness for teenage homelessness and for those who find themselves in unhealthy circumstances in life.

Starting with fundraising leading up to this event, our GOYAns gathered at Saint Mark in prayer, ate simply, listened to a Covenant House representative present, engaged in small groups with clergy, made over 100 hygiene kits for the teenagers of Covenant House and slept out overnight on our campus, to bring awareness to the realities of homelessness.

Through this entire event, our youth were able to experience a glimpse of what it is like to be homeless and the severity of this issue in our local community for teens similar in age and lives to them. This was a blessing as all of our Lenten virtues and focuses were actively being put into practice. The event concluded with morning prayers in front of the sunrise and a debrief of the impact this effort made on our youth. We thank God for this opportunity and for the amazing hearts of our youth.