Midnight Run Helps the Homeless

"Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." —Luke 12:33

Midnight Run participants, including members of Newman Club and Resident Student Association, Diocese of Rockville Centre representatives and three high school students accompanying Professor Emily Kang, pose for a group photograph.

On Sunday, February 20, Adelphi University's Newman Club and the Resident Student Assocation (RSA) participated in the Midnight Run, a not-for-profit organization consisting of "volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools and other civic groups [who] distribute food, clothing, blankets and personal care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City."

Their work began that afternoon, at Adelphi's Interfaith Center. From 3-6 p.m., students sorted clothes, made food packages and arranged bags of toiletries. Clothes were sorted by age and sex, as volunteers placed size labels on them. Food packages included hot chocolate, cookies, crackers and other snacks, in addition to sandwiches.

Volunteers sort clothing for the Midnight Run.

At 7 p.m., Newman Club celebrated Mass and offered up a special intention for the Midnight Run, for the homeless who would be served and for the students' experience that night. Then, at about 8:20, the Adelphi contingent left campus and made its way toward the city.

Approximately 40 minutes later, they arrived and set to work, making three separate stops: At the first, volunteers gave out food, drinks, clothing and shoes to five men, who greatly appreciated the donations.

The group of homeless the volunteers assisted at the second stop was even larger than the first. They live in a small town, of sorts, consisting of homes made of mere cardboard, not brick or stone, to protect their occupants from the bitter winter cold.

This scene, in particular, most struck sophomore Julie Hundertmark. "My most powerful moment was when [fellow volunteers] Danielle Lyons, Gina Cristaldi and I were working on one of the women's shelters made of cardboard boxes to waterproof them with plastic bags," she said.

The Midnight Run's goal is not to end homelessness but rather, "to forge a bond between housed and homeless people by establishing a foundation of sharing and caring from which solutions may evolve." The group's reception Sunday night is evidence of its effectiveness, with significant numbers of homeless, especially at the first and second stops, waiting for the group to come and give them supplies.

Peter Dujmovic (left), brother of Newman Club member Joseph Dujmovic, prepares supplies with Kyle Blackmer.

It was the third and final stop, however, that had the most lasting impact on junior Kyle Blackmer. "We pulled up in front of this Methodist church, and we got out and we walked past some scaffolding covered with tarps, and I didn't hear anything, so I just thought it was typical of New York City construction," he said. "And we went around behind it, and there were five or six cardboard boxes, with people sleeping in them. They were completely hidden, and you could walk by and never really notice, and I've never seen people literally living on the street."

The service trip was finished at about 11:30 that night, at which point the volunteers gathered to pray that the Lord would lift the homeless out of their poverty.

The Midnight Run is "dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless," and for sophomore Erica Conde, that common ground was indeed found: "It was great. We were able to make them [the homeless] feel like people. We didn't just offer them food and clothing; we offered them conversation."

(Special thanks to Kyle Blackmer for providing information for this post. You can read about his experience at the Midnight Run at Mission: Ecuador 2011. All photographs courtesy of Matthew Rudolph.)