It was a chilly night for the Siloam Sleepout participants, offering a good reminder of what Winnipeg's vulnerable population contends with on a daily basis. 

"We were really happy with the event yesterday. Of course, we were hoping to be able to do it in person this year, but we had to make the move to virtual," Luke Thiessen, the Communications Manager at Siloam Mission. "We had a good turnout and everyone seemed really engaged."

The fundraising event started at 7:00 pm on Thursday. 

"We had people get themselves ready for where ever they would be spending the night, beforehand. Then we came together on Zoom, got to know each other, and then dove into learning about poverty and homelessness," says Thiessen.

Some participants chose to sleep in a tent in their backyard, while others chose no shelter at all, and slept on their deck or balcony. 

"We went into breakout groups to talk about some of these things a little deeper. We wrapped up with a session with the Interim Director of the Bear Clan."

Before the event went virtual, part of the evening was spent walking around the streets of Winnipeg with the Bear Clan, to experience the neighbourhood at night. 

After the formal part of the evening concluded around 10:00 pm, participants settled down for the night. A resource package was given to everyone involved so that if they couldn't sleep, they had something to read that pertained to homelessness.

"We checked in with everyone first thing this morning to announce our fundraising total, although some donations are still coming in. It was a chilly night and from what I heard, most people didn't sleep great and that's part of the reason we do it in September. It's not meant to be a comfortable experience."

Temperatures reached a low of three degrees Celius overnight in downtown Winnipeg. 

"This year was the first year we invited some schools to participate. We had high school students from U of W Collegiate and Pierre Elliott Trudeau join us. They were excited to come on board. We also had a lot of new faces."

There were roughly 40 people in total that participated. 

"Overall, this year we had a great event, we raised some money for our programs. We made some new friends and had an awesome evening," he says. 

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