Students experience poverty to raise funds and awareness (VIDEO)

Austin Knoll raises poverty awareness dressed as homeless man Monday afternoon — Austin Knoll raises poverty awareness while dressed as a homeless man Monday afternoon.

BY KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

Dressed as homeless people and standing at busy intersections carrying cardboard signs, Fort Hays State University Leadership Studies students are raising awareness about poverty in Ellis County this week.

Two students were standing at 27th and Vine Monday afternoon, with signs displaying poverty statistics in Ellis County. The students will be in the same location Wednesday afternoon from 2:30 to 3:30 and again from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Austin Knoll, 18, carried a sign with the words “One in five children live in poverty in Ellis County.” Knoll said he felt a bit awkward at first, until people started to pull over to ask what he was doing.

“I actually had a homeless person approach me and he asked me… ‘ you alright? Need a cigarette, you need any money?’ I explained to him I was doing this for a Leadership project at Fort Hays and then he told me he was in poverty so we had a conversation about that and it was eye-opening,” Knoll said.

Jesus Garcia, 24, held a sign stating “13 percent of Ellis County Lives In Poverty,”

“Even just standing there, I started to think about what someone would feel like to be out there for real, because I know that I’m here for an hour and I get to go home,” Garcia said. “It’s definitely been interesting to think about what if this was it? What if this is what I had to do all day and that is what I depended on? It’s been been humbling,” Garcia added.

Any money donated to the students goes to Ellis County Habit for Humanity in Hays.

The awareness campaign culminates with “Shack City” Friday evening on the Quad at FHSU. Teams have registered to spend the night in self-made cardboard shacks from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Saturday.

Last year Shack City raised $500 for Habitat for Humanity. If interested in registering or donating, contact Knoll at (785)-259-0682 or email amknoll2mail.fhsu.edu.

The community can also donate to Ellis County Habitat for Humanity, 2918 Vine St., P.O. Box 444, on behalf of the students’ campaign by calling 785- 623-4200.

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