Cardboard City: 0000 hours

Father Richard preaching at Mass tonight.  There are a lot more kids that off to the left

It's after midnight and Cardboard City III is in full swing.  I arrived at Trinity High School tonight around 5:30pm and students were already setting up their homes for the evening.  Shortly after 7:00pm our chaplain Father Richard Dion celebrated Mass for us.




He reminded the students that when we do good like this we must do it in the name of Jesus Christ.  Otherwise, he said, we are just philanthropists.  Our faith calls us to do good, he said, and the poor teach us how to be Christian.

I met up with some friends this afternoon at the Saint Anselm College Homecoming game and after they came by the school to see the event.  One of my friends, Dan Puopolo, offered to buy pizza for everyone and they enjoyed it after Mass.  We typically show a movie following Mass but since the Red Sox were playing Game 6 of the ALCS we decided to show that.  The kids found some website that was streaming it and while the connection wasn't great they were able to watch it all (we just watched them win the game!).

Some students are in the gym playing basketball and other things and others are outside in their boxes.  Very little sleep takes place at Cardboard City although they will begin to wind down around 1am or so.  At about 6:30am they will have a light breakfast, clean-up, and off to their own beds I am sure.  We haven't collected all the money but we have raised over $5,000.00 already.  100% of the proceeds go to New Horizons here in Manchester.

More to come...