Midnight drenching fails to dampen Shepparton sleepout spirits
- deansimpson7
- May 8
- 5 min read
BY LERISSE SMITH
It was a powerful and poignant wake-up call.
When a group of VIPs recently bedded down at Deakin Reserve sports oval in Shepparton (Vic.) as part of The Salvation Army North East Youth Services ‘Under the Same Stars’ sleepout event to increase awareness of issues facing youth homelessness, no one anticipated an unscheduled soaking.
But a surprise midnight drenching, caused by sprinklers the local council had forgotten to disable, saturated sleeping bags, cardboard shelters and participants.
The unexpected twist could have dampened spirits; however, it instead served as an impactful real-time lens into the harsh realities of youth homelessness.
“In a strange twist of fate, what began as a mishap became one of the event’s most poignant teaching moments of the night,” reflected Jim Gow, Youth Participation Worker at North East Youth Services.
“A guest speaker with lived experience of homelessness put it into perspective for everyone: “This is how it is. The exact thing has happened to me. I was asleep on the St Kilda park bench. You’ve got no security. You’ve got no stability. It’s time to go. You move. You are up and about again.”
Some participants left. Many others shifted to drier ground. But those who stayed gained something profound: a visceral sense of how quickly things can change when living rough.
“The unintended consequences were actually enlightenment,” Jim remarked. “The people that stayed had, ironically, gained another dimension of how unstable life was because of the incident.”
And their spirits were far from dampened.
The event exceeded all expectations, raising a record $20,000 to support local youth services.
Organised by the youth services team and Ray Dobson Real Estate as part of Youth Matters Homelessness Day, the sleepout aimed to raise funds and build empathy and awareness for young people experiencing homelessness.
“This was our maiden voyage with this event,” Jim said.
“It was a first for us, but we knew the appetite was there. I am hugely humbled by the $20,000. It was also about an experience of people roughing it in a way for one night and just walking in other people’s shoes temporarily and experiencing a snapshot of the issues that other people are facing constantly.”
The Salvation Army North East Youth Services offers accommodation and outreach services for young people aged 16 to 25. Located in Shepparton, the Youth Accommodation Program enables young people to stabilise their situations and receive support to set immediate future goals.
More than 100 people, including community leaders, locals, and even CEOs, signed up to sleep rough from 6pm to 6am. The event was fully supervised and free of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, or vapes.
The night was marked with standout moments.
Homelessness stories Guest speakers shared raw and emotional accounts of survival, struggle, and resilience through first-hand lived experiences of homelessness.
One young man recalled sleeping in the back seat of his car while holding down a full-time job. With a window that wouldn’t roll up, he worried about his safety and could barely sleep, changing clothes in his boot before heading to work.
Another speaker reflected on challenging life experiences and decisions, including addiction and the dangers of sleeping rough in Melbourne. He also recounted a traumatic night when a friend he was sleeping beside experienced a horrific attack. A random passerby poured accelerant over him and set him on fire.
“It’s hard to digest, hard to even fathom,” Jim remarked. “We don’t know how lucky we are. We have got first-world problems. It’s not about rubbing people’s face in that – it’s building the discrepancy between our social hierarchy and those that have and those that have not.”
Another striking component of the evening was the ‘privilege exercise’.
The sleepout participants stepped forward or back depending on aspects of their upbringing or identity, such as growing up with two parents or feeling safe showing affection in public.
By the end, people stood scattered across the field, physically illustrating the invisible advantages or disadvantages they carried into adulthood. A key message was not to rub people’s faces in privilege. It was to acknowledge the fact that some people had more opportunities than others.
“A few people were emotional (after the exercise),” he commented. “It was just an acknowledgement – we are here with the same theme in mind and the same genuine want for change. But our background stories may be very different.”
For Jim, avoiding tokenism was key.
The sleepout was not meant to trivialise homelessness but to simulate eight hours of discomfort, just a glimpse designed to spark reflection, not pity.
“I think it rang people’s bell,” he commented.
“I think their appreciation went up. I hope their tolerance went up or their understanding. I like to think that, on top of the money raised, there were other objectives achieved. We had many guest speakers raise some thinking points, such as … do you get paid tomorrow? When buying food. Where are you heating it up? Where are you going to the toilet?”
The team hopes the sleepout inspires long-term empathy and action – that people will pay it forward, stay involved, and remember how fortunate they are while others remain deeply vulnerable.
Fundraising run
In the lead-up to the sleepout, a group of local runners also launched a unique fundraiser of their own, ‘100 Miles From Home’. The team included locals Peter Ralph and Vic Bovalino, who ran 162km in 22 gruelling hours from Epping to Shepparton, arriving at the sleepout site as heroes at 3.41am. Their celebratory hug was cheered by all.
“We have run 100km events before, and we wanted to take the next step when it came to distance running,” Peter explained. “This has been in our minds for a while, and why not raise funds for a worthy cause by doing it – everybody wins!”
With overwhelmingly positive feedback, Jim is optimistic about the event’s future.
“Anything that is successful comes from a team,” he reminded the crowd. But he also knows events need a lifespan.
“I don’t want to be that person that’s out there with 20 people going, ‘Well, it’s great to see you again’, and now it’s the Year 2046,” he laughed.
“No one likes to see the movie Jaws 9! They will watch 1, 2, and 3, but we don’t want to flog a dead horse!”
But for now, the enthusiasm is clear.
“The response means we can justify an investment of time and effort in building people’s awareness locally to make our community one of understanding, ultimately making our community stronger in the long run,” he emphasised.
“People have been really responsive with how they believe they can make it better, and I am sure the next one will be a great success. We launched our survey in response to the event and found that 100 per cent of respondents who had already completed it stated that they not only found it valuable but also would do it again and that they would recommend it to others. It was a very strong and positive response.”
