Published: March 25, 2008 09:26 pm         

MSU fraternity brothers raise money for the homeless

Although they didn’t have much, the four homeless fraternity brothers welcomed guests into their cardboard box apartment.

“This is the dining room. There’s a storage room, and here’s the hallway with four bedrooms off from the hallway,” Matt McManamay says, guiding guests through a small maze of appliance-sized cardboard boxes with sheets of thin plastic serving as doors and windows.

Their home since Monday has been situated just off the sidewalk in front of the Robert C. Byrd Learning Center on the campus of Mountain State University.

McManamay, Andrew Eastwood, Mark Johnson and Jon Marquis are brothers of Phi Sigma Phi fraternity at MSU who’ve taken to the streets to raise awareness — and money — for the homeless.

“We wanted to let the people of Beckley know there are homeless people right here,” Marquis said. “They are not just young people who are homeless because they’ve spent all their money on drugs and alcohol. They are people who are on the streets because of circumstances, not by choice.”

Their simulated homelessness began Monday. Braving frosty temperatures overnight gave them a good idea of what it’s like to try to survive on the streets, they said Tuesday morning.

“We actually stayed pretty warm because we put the boxes together, and when we all got in there, body heat kept us warm overnight,” McManamay said.

Nevertheless, they realize they’re seeing a much more comfortable view of the plight of the homeless.

“People have felt sorry for us and have brought us food and blankets because they want us to be warm, but generally, people don’t have that much concern for the actual homeless,” McManamay said.

Eastwood said he was gaining a whole new attitude about the homeless themselves.

“I give them much credit and respect,” he said. “It’s not easy to live like this. We know that after Wednesday this will be over for us. It will continue to go on indefinitely for people who are really homeless.”

McManamay said he can better understand the emotional toll homelessness takes on its victims.

“It’s emotionally draining. I feel like eventually I would just stop feeling and just go on auto pilot. I would just do what I had to do to survive from day to day,” he said.

Having done some research before undertaking their project, McManamay said there are at least 500 homeless individuals in the Greater Beckley area.

“There are whole families that are homeless, and there are senior citizens without homes as well,” he said.

Most of the homeless in Beckley don’t live on the streets, he added. “They float around among friends and relatives until eventually they wind up on the street or in a shelter.”

The problems that create homelessness often fall into a vicious cycle, Johnson said.

“They lose a job, and then they can’t afford a place to live, or if they have a low-paying job but can’t pay the rent, then they wind up with a job but no place to live.”

Carrying cardboard signs asking for money for the homeless, the fraternity brothers are collecting money they will donate to Pine Haven Homeless Services, a shelter where they visited and interviewed several homeless people.

“We learned a lot just from talking to people who’ve actually lived this experience,” McManamay said. “We found out there are a lot of misconceptions about what homelessness is really all about.”

Representatives from the president’s office at MSU came by Tuesday morning with donuts and hot coffee.

“We think it’s honorable for these young men to make people aware of homelessness,” executive secretary Tracy Marra said. “As a university, we see the need to recognize the needs of our community and to make a difference wherever we can.”

Fraternity members will continue to accept donations for Pine Haven today. Although the experiment will end, they say they hope they won’t forget what they’ve learned.

“We realize we haven’t done what we could to help homeless people we’ve encountered,” McManamay said. “We hope the next time we have an opportunity to help the homeless we will be more willing to reach out to them. We also hope what we’ve done this week will encourage the general public to get involved and help combat homelessness as well.

— E-mail: bdavis

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