An annual candlelight vigil tomorrow is aimed at highlighting an student homelessness on the Kenai Peninsula.
Pegge Erkeneff with the school district says in the three months since school began, 183 students are already enrolled in the Students in Transition Program, a number that is quickly approaching their annual average of 253 students.
Erkeneff: “It’s an invisible reality on the Peninsula, we don’t see people on the side of the streets here when we’re driving around, we don’t experience seeing people who are homeless in the same way that we might in a big city.
She says community members often ask how they can help…
Erkeneff: “For our program we have run out of funds this year, so we will be telling people ways that they can donate to help the program that go 100% to services to students. One thing that’s really hard when we get a lot of things, coats, sleeping bags, things like that, is that it might be the wrong sizes for the people that we’re serving, so the most helpful thing is for us to be able to purchase exactly what is needed.”
On Thursday, November 19, from 6-7 pm, the 6th Annual Candlelight Vigil to raise awareness of student homeless will take place in Soldotna’s Farnsworth Park.