198.
There are 198 homeless youth within the Columbia Public School system.
These children and teenagers don’t have the privilege of stressing about what to wear or what movie to go see during the weekend. They worry about where they are going to sleep at night and how they are going to get their next meal. Their lives contrast starkly with those of most collegiettes™. And that’s what the members of Project Sol want MU students to realize.
“This is not about just raising funds or making people aware of an issue, but also for students to be thankful and understanding of the opportunities that they’ve been given,” says Project Sol’s Director of Events Nina Rayburn. “Hopefully they’ll be able to give back to those who are less fortunate.”
The organization has come a long way since it began last semester. It all started during Zach Parolin’s 2010 spring break. Zach joined country music star and former homeless teen Jimmy Wayne for four days as part of Wayne’s 1,700-mile walk to promote youth homelessness awareness. The experience of simulated homelessness stuck with Zach, and he decided to do something about it.
Zach learned about Rainbow House, a children’s emergency shelter, regional child advocacy center and homeless youth program located here in Columbia. He wanted to support Rainbow House any way he could. So, he contacted a few friends once school began in the fall, and they met weekly in Arts & Sciences to determine how to bring Zach’s brainchild to life.
Their first decision was to call themselves Project Sol. The name represents the Sol House – a place within Rainbow House for homeless 18- to 22-year-olds – and lets everyone know the group’s mission to fill each child’s day with a little more “sunlight.”
By November, Project Sol recruited new members. After receiving 63 applications, the executive board conducted interviews and selected the top 20 students.
“Over half of the new members we took happened to be freshmen and sophomores,” says Director of Service Hailee Murphy. “That wasn’t planned at all. It just worked out that we had some great, great applicants.”
Now the 27 members make visits each week to the Rainbow House Youth Transitional Living Program, which was originally known as the Sol House, and the Rainbow House Emergency Shelter, where children from age zero to 18 live. Typical activities with the children include playing with their toys and reading them bedtime stories. When spending time with the teens, Project Sol members keep it casual.
“They trust us and look forward to our visits, so we can just kind of show up and hang out,” Zach says.
Nina remembers going to get Coldstone ice cream with some of the Rainbow House residents. They were shocked to hear her say she would be back the following week. “They don’t have many stable relationships,” Nina says. “It really meant a lot to me to be able to provide that to them.”
This week is youth homelessness awareness week, and Project Sol will be at Speaker’s Circle each day. Everyone is asked to wear blue, the national color for the cause, on Wednesday. Students who come to Speaker’s Circle Thursday and Friday will be able to send postcards to the families and children at Rainbow House.
The main event is a free Jimmy Wayne concert Tuesday, April 12 in Jesse Auditorium. He will perform an acoustic set of his hits and talk about his time living on the streets. Teens from Rainbow House will also speak.
“I would just love for people to show up that night, have an open mind and be willing to listen to what these people who are the same age as we are have to say,” Zach says.
With all the planning that has gone into this week, Project Sol has not had a chance to celebrate its most recent accomplishment. The group won the 2011 Chancellor’s Excellence Award for best new group on campus.
“I never would have imagined when I started working for Project Sol in the fall that we would have made it this far,” Nina says.
Zach says he started Project Sol with absolutely no expectations. He did not know what would happen with the recruitment process, with the Jimmy Wayne concert or with the people at Rainbow House. Yet it somehow worked out, he says.
“Not that we need the recognition to validate what we’ve accomplished this year, but it’s still neat to be rewarded like that,” Zach says. “Many of the younger members didn’t even know this type of award existed. So it’s cool for them to share this, and hopefully it will inspire them to continue their work with the organization for these next few years.”
Project Sol plans to recruit new members again in the late fall. In the future, Hailee hopes to bring a group over to Rainbow House three or more times every week. Homelessness is always going to be a problem, and Rainbow House will always need someone to support them, she says.
In this town, kids sleep on park benches or on their friends’ couches and don’t know where they’re going to sleep the next night, Hailee says. Every collegiette™ and Mizzou student is in a position to help and be a role model for them. Simply being there is beneficial.
“198 – we keep throwing that number out there,” Zach says. “I hope people will think about that number a little bit and think about how fortunate so many of us are to be in the situations that we’ve been put in.”