March 28, 2024

Club helps raise homeless awareness

Annual event raised more than $100,000

An event that took place this fall allowed a Newton High School civic organization to contribute to a cause that doesn’t get much attention in rural Iowa.

The Newton High School Key Club has been involved with the organization Reggie’s Sleepout for many years, and an Oct. 22 event at Drake Stadium was the latest opportunity for the Key Club to show youth homelessness is an important concern.

Started more than a decade ago in memory of a young man who passed away in 2001 while on the streets, Reggie’s Sleepout holds events designed to raise funds for organizations that combat youth homelessness and to show young people what it’s like to sleep in a cardboard box for a night.

About eight NHS students who are members of the club headed to Drake for the October event. The next major Reggie’s Sleepout event is set to be held March 25 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.

Steve Weeks, a Newton High School teacher, coach and Key Club sponsor, said the Key Club, which is part of the service family of Kiwanis International, said youth homelessness is a cause that has been important to NHS students for many years.

“The NHS Key Club was engaged with Reggie’s Sleepout since before I started helping with the club back in 2012 — back when Jennie Doke Kerns was the sponsor,” Weeks said. “It was something that the students had always looked forward to and every year when we decide what work we want to do it is always one of the first ones put back on the list.”

Weeks said there is a great deal of shame and/or embarrassment surrounding any type of child or youth homelessness.

“Many of those who it affects do not talk about it,” he said. “For many, it is a family financial situation they cannot control and suffer because of it. For others, it affects teens who open up to loved ones that they are not heterosexual and that’s enough to lose their families and home.”

Key Club sits down each year and discusses which causes to support. An annual local holiday gift toy drive, Christmas in the Gym, is set for Dec. 16 during the
NHS basketball doubleheader. The club also holds a money fundraiser in the spring for a rotating group. Last spring's recipients were Blank Children's Hospital, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF and many other organizations.

Weeks said the club members show how NHS students avoid pity, instead focusing on the kind of help they’d hope to receive if they ever found themselves homeless.

“This Key Club is filled with students who are very aware of the world around them,” Weeks said. “They are trying their best to do all the good they can when they can — for whom they can.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at
641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or
jbrooks@newtondailynews.com