First Annual Box City Fundraiser

Box City is an event where participants build shelters out of cardboard boxes and sleep outside for a night to raise awareness of what it's like to experience homelessness. The event is a fundraiser for the Family Promise of Laurens County Homelessness Prevention Program.

Each attendee is encouraged to raise $50 by collecting cash donations from neighbors, friends, fellow congregation members, having a fundraiser, etc. This will be participants' "rent." Donations can be mailed to PO Box 1608, Laurens, SC 29360 or brought on the day of the event. Donations can also be made online here. Teams/Individuals can create their own profile so that donors will be attributed to them.

Find more details, including pledge sheets, business sponsorship info, liability waiver and paper registration forms here.

This event is meant to be educational as well as fun. Though decorating a cardboard box for prizes is fun and exciting, the reality is that many people must use cardboard to shelter themselves from the elements, and without a year-round homeless shelter, people facing homelessness are also forced to sleep outside in tents and cars no matter how cold it is outside. Box City gives participants a chance to live in the shoes of someone who is without a home, and sleep as they would…outside.

Though these are luxuries people experiencing homelessness do not always have, we will have security as well as bathrooms at this event. All participants must complete a liability waiver.