‘Harry Potter and the Cardboard Box’ shown on James Street (10 photos)

After a two-year hiatus, the Sault Ste. Marie Soup Kitchen Community Centre held its Great Soup Kitchen Sleep Over from Friday night to Saturday morning.

Fifty people had raised funds and constructed cardboard box shelters for themselves, some of them designed with a great deal of creativity, planning to spend the night outside the James Street Soup Kitchen in cold weather, all funds raised going to Soup Kitchen Community Centre operations.

“I wanted to go with a Harry Potter theme because those are my favourite stories,” smiled Kaedri Miles, a St. Mary’s College Grade 12 student, speaking to SooToday as she inflated an air mattress to install in her cardboard box shelter.

Miles said she has camped outdoors overnight before, but not this ruggedly and not for such a cause as this, stating she anticipated the cardboard box outdoor sleepover in chilly conditions would be a learning experience for her.

“I definitely think it’s important to immerse yourself and see what other people live like, people who aren’t as fortunate to have shelter and easy access to food.”

Miles said she raised $500 over the past five weeks for the Soup Kitchen Sleep Over, through donations from family members, friends and schoolteachers.

“She’s doing an independent thing on her own here but I’m supporting her,” said Ryan Miles, Kaedri’s father. 

“I’ll be close by, a phone call away. I’m proud of my daughter for doing this.” 

The St. Mary’s College Knights hockey team (consisting of over 20 boys) had set up a village of adjoining cardboard box shelters for themselves at the site, scheduled to arrive and spend the night after their Friday night game.

“It’s a poverty simulation, to give people a little taste of reality when it comes to homelessness,” said Ron Sim, Sault Ste. Marie Soup Kitchen Community Centre general manager.

The evening marked the first time the Soup Kitchen has held the event since 2016 (having held it 11 previous times).

“That was due in part to Steel Town Down (the 2018 CTV W5 documentary which highlighted the Sault’s opioid crisis, creating a very negative feeling in the James Street area and throughout the city), and the summer before that there was a stabbing in the area and a person died. There was all kinds of bad press and negative comments about the area,” Sim said.

“We figured we would lay low for a couple of years, then bring it back. With the city trying to revitalize this whole area now, we’re just basically trying to teach that ‘people are people.’ Anything can happen anywhere, in the east end too. This area’s full of good people, so we’re trying to remedy the situation and, along with the city, hoping to revitalize the area, and bringing this event back is a pretty good start.”

“To have 50 people registered for an event that hasn’t happened in a while isn’t bad, and we’re hoping to boost it up. We put the word out about it five or six weeks ago...next year we’ll get the word out earlier through the media and social media,” Sim said, adding he enjoyed observing the creative effort put into some of the cardboard shelters, including the Harry Potter shelter and a ‘castle,’ built by Cathy Rainone.

In past years, the Sleep Over has raised between $30,000 to $40,000, Sim said.

“This year we’ll be happy if we can get $5,000 to $6,000 because we only have 50 participants. In earlier days, to raise that kind of money we had 270 participants or more. The whole area was lined up with boxes, so we’re hoping we can expand that and get bigger and better.” 

“It isn’t as bad in northern Ontario, but in Toronto you see people sleeping on the grates, in boxes and in tents, and you think ‘we’re one of the richest countries in the world, and we still have this kind of poverty?’”

Sim said some first time Sleep Over participants have approached him in past years, describing their outdoor cardboard box experiences as a true eye-opener as to how some people live.

“In fact, we’ve had many that will come inside in the middle of the night crying,” Sim said, his voice breaking and his own eyes welling up with tears.

Sim said he’s never had the chance to participate in the Sleep Over personally, being ‘the nightshift guy’ who makes sure the cardboard boxers are safe (Sault Police were anticipated to be near throughout the night) and the Soup Kitchen open for food (such as chili and hot dogs), hot beverages and washroom needs.

A hot breakfast was scheduled to be served at the Soup Kitchen for Sleep Over participants at 7 a.m. Saturday, with prizes to be given for their efforts.