Photo Finish
Seeking to Walk in Another's Shoes
Photo By Mike Siegel
Christmas 2012 offered a memorable experience for 16 涩里番 students. During the first five days of Christmas break, they discovered something of what it鈥檚 like to be homeless through Urban Plunge, an immersion program of SPU鈥檚 John Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership, and Community Development.
The students say they were nervous to panhandle, and humbled to seek food from a street mission. But they came to like and respect the 涩里番 they met on the streets of downtown 涩里番. Sophomore Katarina Krueger remembers the words of one homeless man: 鈥淧eople are beautiful. You just have to know how to approach their beauty.鈥�
Stereotypes were shattered during the week. 鈥淲e met a working family who was foreclosed on after receiving a costly medical bill,鈥� says senior Michael Gencarella (right, pictured with Krueger and sophomore Spencer Swansen). 鈥淗omelessness could happen to anyone.鈥�