Family promise Mc Cardboard Box City

Cardboard Box City Raises Awareness of Homelessness and Funds for Family Promise of Monmouth County Despite the Rain

On September 30th, Family Promise of Monmouth County (FPMC) held its second annual Cardboard Box City event. While the weather was threatening throughout the day, it held out until 9:30pm and then the rain started. Most people were prepared and ready to brave the weather, however, shortly thereafter, it started lightning, and Monmouth Church of Christ, whose grounds the event was being held on, graciously allowed us to move into their church hall for the remainder of the night. We all got an added lesson on what the homeless have to face during inclement weather. Participants who had planned to spend the night sleeping in cardboard boxes to raise awareness of homelessness and to raise funds in support of Family Promise, instead slept on the linoleum floor. Dinner consisting of soup and bread was served from a “soup line”. Breakfast was served early on Saturday morning before everyone took down their soggy boxes, cleaned up, and headed home – with a greater appreciation for those who don’t have a safe, dry place to sleep at night.
Despite the rain, the event was a success, growing our fundraising donations over last year, the number of participants, and the number of youth groups. This year we raised over $15,000, had close to a 100 participants and 4 new youth groups participating.
Guest speakers included Doreen, a former client of FPMC, telling her story of how she came to become homeless, how FPMC helped her family, and where she is today – manager of a local retail store. Doreen spoke about how she would not be where she is today without the support and guidance of Family Promise.
Amy Mallet, Monmouth County Freeholder, also spoke at the event about the partnership between Family Promise and the County Department of Social Services. She noted that Family Promise is an essential program in meeting the needs of homeless families in Monmouth County
Cardboard Box City participants either decorated their boxes ahead of time or decorated them at the event with a variety of arts and crafts materials provided at the “Box Decoration Station”. Prizes were awarded for:

Best Decorated Box - first place – Emily Ahrens, Old First United Methodist Church and
Julie Burgos second place also from Old First United Methodist Church.
Emily and Julie received “A Night at the Movies” gift baskets
Most money raised – first place – Katherine Lumina-$340-St. Luke’s Youth Group
Ebenezar Shim, also from St. Luke’s Youth Group, second place who raised $211. Katherine and Ebenezar received $100 and $50 gift cards.
Youth group leader who brought the most students – Lorna Breiter, teacher advisor for the Red Bank Charter Middle School Honor Society, received a$100 gift certificate donated by McLoone's Restaurant group for bringing 15 students

Entertainment was provided by Nancy Scharff, who has played at the Rome Opera and Music Festival, in New York City at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and will be performing at the Count Basie Theater in December. Nancy performed last to close out the program, unruffled by the downpour of rain that began during her performance . Whitney Kelly, a local teen singer/songwriter who had performed at last year’s Cardboard Box City, appeared again and another local band - Jake Tavill and Matt Cavanaugh performed both original songs and classic rock.
We want to recognize and thank all of the volunteers and participants from our congregations, friends, family, and the community who came out to support Cardboard Box City. We’d like to thank our business sponsors who donated money, goods, services, and volunteers.
We hope to see you all there again next year. So hold the date of September 28, 2012.

Supporting Sponsors

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