Survivor Challenge

The Salvation Army’s annual Teen Survivor Challenge may be a good way for high school students to chew up a chunk of their mandatory volunteer hours, but it’s also an eye opener that helps keep them on a straight and narrow path.

Alex Antunes, a St. Ignatius High School graduate who took part in the challenge last June, said spending a cool night sleeping on a park bench, with little or no money and just a blanket keeping the blustery Northern Ontario elements at bay, taught him that homelessness is not a great position to be in.

"Not at all," he said on Monday, at the launch of the 2010 challenge, slated for Current River Park on June 5 and 6.
"It’s not a cakewalk and it’s very hard to deal with. You struggle a lot, especially on the colder days. You have to strive and fend for yourself, especially when people steal your blankets."

According to a 2006 study conducted by the Thunder Bay Economic Justice Committee, about 17,000 people are living in low-income situations in the city, and while not all are homeless and living on the streets, the number of people without a place to call home appears to be on the rise.

Zak Vetricek, a volunteer who first got involved with the challenge a few years ago when his teenaged daughter signed on, said students begin the weekend thinking it’s going to be easy, but emerge with an entirely new view on what it means to be homeless.

Participants are given roles to play and face different obstacles in their daily survival quest. They soon find out there’s a world out there beyond video games and Glee. Often it’s the little things most teens take for granted that make the most impact, Vetricek said.

"The participants, when they arrive, they get their identity. It’s spelled out whether or not they’re literate. There are a lot of homeless people that can’t read or can’t write. So filling out an application would be very difficult for them. Some have ID or don’t have ID. And it’s difficult for homeless people who don’t have ID to apply for social assistance, or apply for a job," Vetricek said.

Students then go through the processes of applying for work and ID, among other tasks, to learn first-hand the difficulties faced by the homeless.

Vetricek said most kids emerge enlightened and with a much clearer view on what it means to be homeless.

"I think a lot of them come in thinking it’s a walk in the park, it’s a sleep in the box, it’s an easy way to get our 24 hours. But it’s not that easy getting donations (each student must also raise $100)," he said.

"My favourite question to ask the kids, and I usually ask them the next morning, is could you do this all over again, if you were truly homeless, and survived this past 24 hours, only to have to do this over again and again."

Mervyn Halvorsen, the executive director at the Salavation Army’s Thunder Bay chapter, said the lesson they want to pass along is that homelessness isn’t a lifestyle any youngster should pursue – though sadly many do.

"Many of our teenagers think that life on the street is actually very glamorous. They can get away from mom and dad and have no rules and regulations over their heads. But as many of the teens have discovered over the past years in this event, life can be very hard on the streets. The weather, the elements, the lack of food and the lack of accommodations can create a very hard time," he said.

Halvorsen said they’re aiming for 90 student volunteers in 2010, a number that would put them at capacity and compare favourably to the past few years at the eight-year-old event.