Tau Kappa Epsilon students set up a shelter to raise money to end homelessness ( Photo: C.J. Roussakis )

 

The Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity at Carleton was raising awareness March 25 for homelessness outside the Minto Centre.

The boys picked a prime location beside the main bus stop to ask students passing by for donations.

The event is called “TKE in a Box” and is being run by the philanthropy committee of the Tau Omega chapter.

The students built their own shelter and lived there from 12 p.m. Wednesday to 12 p.m. Thursday, rain or shine.

The idea came from another chapter in Montreal that has been doing the event for the last 10 years.

"We decided to carry this idea over from other chapters because homelessness is such a huge problem in Ottawa and we need to do everything we can to help the situation get better,” said Brandon Fortes, chair of the philanthropy committee.

All donations collected over the 24-hour period are going to the Ottawa Mission.

“University students don’t have a lot of money for themselves, let alone to give so we’re out here freezing our asses off with not too much to show for it,” said Brendan Connor, a member of the philanthropy committee. “We do know that it’s hard though for university students. It just makes the whole process harder.”

The committee built their shelter using spare pieces of wood, bricks and tarp donated by the architecture and engineering faculties at Carleton.

"Building this shelter was definitely a huge obstacle, but we did it and now we have somewhere to camp out over night,” Connor said.

"We wanted to show that, yes, we are a frat, but we’re always trying hard to help the community to show what we can do," Connor said.

Derin Adedeji, who was passing by the Minto Centre, said she was surprised to see the committee members outside in their shelter.

"I don’t know much about frats, but I didn’t know they did so much for the community,” she said. “It’s cold out and yet here they are dedicating themselves to getting donations for the homeless. That is so cool.”

This event isn’t all the fraternity is doing in terms of volunteer work.

"We have some more charitable events going on over the next couple of months,” Connor said. “We hope to take part in the Hope Volleyball tournament and we’re planning to have a giant Greek car wash at the athletics centre during the summer. We hope to raise $240,000 at that one.”