University Students Visit New York City at Night to Serve the Homeless

Students from Western Connecticut State University's Newman Center

In the middle of spring this year, the Newman Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut (with Franciscan Friar Bard Heckathorne serving as its chaplain) held its Midnight Runs program. The program takes Western Connecticut State students to New York City at night. While in New York, the students meet some of the city’s homeless persons and try to assist and care for them.

New York City's Times Square

When most people are safe and sound in their comfortable homes, New York’s homeless people become even more vulnerable because they lack shelter and can fall prey to natural elements or human cruelty. Western Connecticut State’s students who participated in the Midnight Runs program and other kindhearted volunteers who work on the streets of New York did and do their best to help the city’s homeless stay safe, healthy, and nourished. Surely, this is also what Francis of Assisi would have done.

(Sources of all related images on webpage and homepage: www.wcsu.edu and wikipedia.org.)