It may be the middle of winter where the temperature has dipped below minus, but that didn’t stop five of our intrepid colleagues from taking part in last weekend’s Big Sleep Out, organised by homeless charity Social Bite, to help raise funds to combat homelessness in Scotland.
Marion Gillies, Cath Herdman, Mariola Szczesna, Lynn Richmond and Joanna Maclaine, donned several layers and braced temperatures of minus six to sleep out under the stars alongside 8,000 others in Edinburgh’s Prince’s Street Gardens.
Despite having frost on their sleeping bags, it really hit home that thousands of people face this daily hardship, across Scotland and the rest of the UK.
They don’t just do it for one night and the next they are tucked up in their cosy central heating homes – they have to fight to stay alive living on the streets.
The team set themselves an original target of £3,000 and through a host of fundraising activities, including a music concert and cake sales, they raised over £5,000.
It’s a fantastic effort, which has gone towards the £3.6 million raised on the night to help tackle homelessness in Scotland. Social Bite is building the first homeless village in Granton, Edinburgh and the money raised from this event will help to get homeless people back on their feet.
Through the introduction of eco-friendly, energy-efficient and moveable NestHouses, homeless people will be able to have somewhere to go home to and receive support to get their life back on track towards a job and their own permanent home.
We think it’s such a great initiative, which is why we have donated the windows and doors for each of the homes.
It’s a small thing for us but it will help make such a different to people’s lives and that is something you can’t put a price on.
