NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE
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WHITE PINE PRESS
December 5, 2024
Students Advocate Change in a Walk for Health and Housing
Minnie Bardenhagen
Staff Writer
The 9th annual “Walk for Health and Housing,” a walk around downtown Traverse City that raises awareness on the city’s homeless population and the resources they have available headed in part by NMC, occurred on Nov. 20th, and dozens of students were seen showing their support by attending and carrying posters with messages[1] [2] such as “open your eyes, open your heart. Homelessness is real, let's do our part.”
29-year-old NMC student Noel Wilde convinced some of the students in attendance that they should come, and described the attitudes surrounding the homeless in the neighborhood around the Boardman River.
“I actually live in this neighborhood, the Boardman neighborhood, and I posted about this in my neighborhood’s facebook group because a lot of people on that group are vocal about how much they don’t want the homeless in our neighborhood and they don’t want Safe Harbor to stay open [all] year,” she explained, “So, I’m trying to get them to change their minds … so I invited my entire neighborhood, actually.”
While Wilde admitted she wasn’t sure if her neighbors actually came to the event, she felt hopeful about the turnout.
“I came last year, I think there’s even more numbers this year than last year,” she described, then proceeded to speak to how important education of the subject of homelessness is, “I think everyone should have to take some sort of education in social work or social studies, because education is the ending stuff like this[3] .”
“Students are the future and the next generation,” Wilde expressed, “the more awareness and education that’s spread about things like this … you know students are the next voting population, so they’re the ones who are actually going to help make changes.”
NMC professor Lisa Blackford, who teaches social work and psychology courses, was also in attendance with her dog, and she gave insight into how the event has evolved and the importance of students to the homeless issue in the community.
“This is our 9th year … When we started it was a conversation between a couple of us faculty like, ‘let's do something different,’” she explained, “So, that morphed into this walk, cause we reached out to the people in the community and it seemed like a really important topic.”
“I think our first year we may have had like 15 students come with us, and every year it just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Blackford described, “and I think something that’s just really near and dear to heart is [that] so many years have gone by now that I’m seeing previous students, my social work students that are now working at the agencies that we’ve visited … and they’re still working towards ending homelessness.”
“I think it’s extremely important that the community sees that,” she continued, “because with students we have new ideas … and looking at things in a new perspective with new technology, new education … and I think that just rallies the community around too. I see people from all ages that are coming on this walk now that are not students, but they’re here for the importance of it.”
The event, which lasted about two hours, led the sizable crowd of people throughout the downtown area, from places like a public parking area where city police officer Krista Fryczynski spoke, to Central United Methodist Church where the leader of the event Ryan Hannon stopped to speak, to F&M park where Ashley Halladay-Schmandt from the Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness delivered remarks.
Outside of the Traverse City Government Center, mayor Amy Shamroe spoke about solving the issue of homelessness at the government level and the impact citizens have on that effort.
“Your voices out here matter when we’re having these conversations,” she expressed, “showing up at city commission meetings matter, showing up at county commission meetings matter, and emailing matters … and just talking about it to people, about the reality of the situation.”
All of the stops during the walk, including Central United Methodist Church[4] [5] , Goodwill, Safe Harbor, and Jubilee House all provide opportunities to get involved in helping the community with the issue of homelessness. Their websites contain volunteer information.
I'm gonna send you a couple photos I took
Perfect!
Was this the actual quote? The last part, "because education is the ending stuff like this," does not make sense in this context. Is it supposed to be "because education helps end stuff like this"? Not sure but it is confusing.
repeated from above
Is there an abbreviated version or should I just put "the church"
Photo courtesy of Hannah Gaither
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