For a few hours late Friday evening into a frigid Saturday morning, 19 Wawasee High School students were able to briefly experience a typical night for a homeless person or at least someone living in a home with no heat. They didn’t sleep in a box under an overpass or on the cold floor of an unheated abandoned building, but they slept in tents on the high school grounds.

The Heat Up the Night event was planned by the Warrior Leadership Committee of WHS. It served the purpose of being a fundraiser and also a way to empathize with the homeless or those with no heat in their homes. Non-perishable food items were collected and local businesses were asked for minimum donations of $50. The food and funds will be donated to the food pantries in Milford, North Webster and Syracuse.

Students stayed in the tents in groups near the main entrance of the school from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. They were not permitted to use technology or electronic devices in any way with the exception of the “minutes” they earned based on the number of food items collected. During those minutes they could enter the high school building to warm up, too.

But as it turned out, other than entering the building to use the restrooms, most students did not use their minutes, said Caleb Dingeldein, junior student. He noted the group had a fire going in a barrel near the tents and were able to find things to do for much of the night.

Heat Up the Night was announced to the entire student body during the Veterans Day program Nov. 11. It is one of several holiday-related fundraisers or drives planned by WHS students to help those in need.

The idea for Heat Up the Night came up in a classroom at WHS only about a couple of weeks before Veterans Day. Planning was minimal, then, for an event likely never done before at WHS.

Stephanie Camargo, senior student, said identifying with the homeless was the original intent but it grew into the realization some living in the three communities making up the Wawasee school district are forced to choose between food and heat in their houses.

“We don’t realize how many in our communities are like that,” she said. She added the backpack program at WHS only goes so far and “we want the food pantries to be stocked up for the holiday season.” Dingeldein said the fundraiser was particularly good “because I enjoy giving back to the community.”

The actual temperature dipped into the teens Saturday morning and Dingeldein said he knew it would be extremely cold “but it was really too late to back out of it now.” Camargo said she liked seeing the group “come together as one big family,” even if most of them don’t normally hang out together as friends.

A total of 790 food items were collected. Eight businesses (with two more not confirmed at press time) and some teachers donated a total exceeding $1,300.