The last few weeks have been packed with stuff. I'll begin with the weekend of the 19th of October.. That Friday night was the Nuit Des Sans-Abris. The Nuits Des Sans-Abris is an awareness event held all across Quebec for the homeless. The general idea of the event is that it includes a march, some speakers, and the goal is for participants to stay up all night.
The Nuit Des Sans-Abris held in Saint-Jerome was at the local community art center called Ici Par Les Arts. Two members of our group whose work placement is Ici Par Les Arts helped organize the event, and the whole group was partaking and lending a hand throughout the night. The event began around 6PM with a march through Saint-Jerome. Unfortunately for us we were accompanied by a rainstorm as well. So just before the march began bright yellow ponchos were handed out, and then off we went. To be honest I think the ponchos attracted more attention.. and hopefully this helped raised more awareness! After the march the event moved inside for bit so speeches could be made, and soup and coffee could be distributed. Later on in the evening there was a fire show, tam tam jams, multiple performers, and much much later on; a documentary on the homeless. By the time the documentary came on the majority of people had gone. Even most of our group couldn't make it all night! By the time the "breakfast of champions" rolled around at 7AM there were only me, four other CWY volunteers, and about ten other people still awake!
Here is a picture of the CWY "survivors" at 7AM:
Even though we were exhausted after not sleeping at all Friday night we couldn't sleep all day. I had time for about three hours of sleep and then it was off again because we were going bowling, and then we had a surprise party for Luis (my work partner) who was turning 26!
The surprise party ended pretty late Saturday night, and even though it was fun, I think everyone was glad to go home and sleep. Unfortunately though, that wasn't the last of the plans for the weekend!
Sunday morning we were up bright and early for the commemorative march for Dr. Dominique Ouimet. Dr. Ouimet was a cardiologist at the Saint-Jerome hospital who died recently while climbing a mountain in Nepal to raise money for the hospital. The march was expected to attract between 500 and 1000 people! Unfortunately, (once again), we were joined by rain and very cold weather. But by the time the march got going most of the rain had cleared up, and it was just very cold.
My CWY group was there to work security for the march, and help keep everyone organized.
Here is a picture (from the local paper) of the march:
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