Austin Elementary walks for the homeless

Austin Montessori hosted a Homeless Awareness Walk Sept. 19 for all students and any parents who wanted to attend.

The walk served two purposes to raise awareness about homelessness and to help raise money for the cause.

Randy McGuire, a fifth and sixth grade teacher at Austin, and Odessa's organizer for Family Promise, initiated the project as he saw a correlation between the school's emphasis on Peace and the promotion of homeless awareness. As they began the campaign, teachers across the grade levels took the opportunity to talk with their classes about the reality homeless families face.

McGuire's fifth- and sixth-grade class spearheaded the walk and helped prepare for it by setting up five different simulated homeless shelters that were tarp lean-tos, tents, a cardboard shelter and a van.

They were also responsible for guiding the "tourists" along and giving short presentations about the various challenges families encounter living in such difficult circumstances.

While waiting for the next tour, one group experienced the vulnerability of their cardboard building materials against the west Texas wind as they had to scramble to reconstruct a wall that had blown down.

Austin students and parents began the tour in the gym where they watched a video of different testimonials of families who had been homeless and who were helped through Family Promise.

From there they proceeded to the playground to tour each station.

Letters were sent home with students asking for donations of just $1 and some parents responded by extending the opportunity to their friends and co-workers.

All funds raised will be donated to Family Promise of Odessa, a non-profit organization that assists homeless families with children.
Funds are still being collected and Thrivent Financial has pledged to match up to $5,000 in received donations.