Editor, Gazette-Journal:

We arrived disheveled, in clothing worn and tattered as we tried to emulate the life of a homeless person. We searched and found items to make our shelters that would be used as our “home” for the next 12 hours.

We foraged and scoured the woods to find whatever wood and scraps were available to build our fires to have a little relief from the night’s cold. Thankfully, plastic donated by a benevolent person provided protection from the impending rainstorm.

With our shelters now in place, many of us set out on a walk to area businesses—representing a face of the homeless. In general, the businesses were kind and gracious—positively responding to our requests to use the restroom or wash our hands and/or to work and earn some food.

This was a night of increasing public awareness to the plight of the homeless, as well as to raise much-needed funding for the homeless and the needy through the...