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PERRYSBURG TWP. -- Owens Community College students spent a night under the stars to raise homeless awareness as part of the academic institution’s seventh annual Sleep Out for the Homeless Tent City on Wednesday.

Beginning at 4 p.m., students spent 17 consecutive hours camping out on the college's courtyard lawn outside the Student Health and Activities Center on the Toledo campus. The goal of the sleep out was to make more people aware of homelessness occurring in the surrounding communities and to collect non-perishable canned food items to benefit Cherry Street Mission Ministries in Toledo. The event concluded at 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 5.

“There are multiple reasons that a person can become homeless,” said Nicole Lance, Owens Student Activities Assistant. “The Owens Community College Sleep Out for the Homeless Tent City project is intended to bring to the forefront this very serious issue, which does not discriminate and can happen to anyone at anytime.”

Owens students and employees and community members showed their support by dropping off non-perishable canned food items.

Additionally, Owens students put their construction skills to the test as part of a cardboard box-building competition. The student project receiving first-place honors will have the collected non-perishable canned food items donated in their name to Cherry Street Mission Ministries.

Cherry Street Mission Ministries was founded in 1947 with the overall goal of providing help to those in need in the form of food and shelter. In addition to meeting people’s critical basic needs, the organization focuses on empowering people to break the bonds of homelessness and poverty and build new lives for themselves.