Knights Of Columbus "Going Homeless" For One Night To Raise Awareness For Island Residents In Need

Mike Gillies, the leader of the St. Mary’s Parish Knights of Columbus group, is hoping he and his fellow knights can bring awareness to the island’s homelessness problems by “going homeless” for one night on Ash Wednesday (March 5^th) with all money raised going to The Warming Place.

"The idea came about a little bit ago to me as the Knights of Columbus have always kind of supported things like the warming place on the island," Gillies said. "I kept thinking how can we really make an impact? How can we bring in some serious awareness? How can we make something that makes a splash? I thought you know what? Let's all go homeless for the night. Let's just stay out all night on the park benches on Main Street or in front of St. Mary's, and make an impactful statement that brings awareness so that a lot of people realize that there are homeless people on Nantucket.”

Gillies said there will be eight to 10 knights participating in the movement. They will go to Mass Wednesday evening and receive their ashes before remaining outside until the next morning.

"We're going to start prayerful, go homeless for the night, and then in the morning go to morning mass, and then go to our jobs," Gillies said. "We're not going to go home. Most of us aren't going to go home in between. Some of the older guys are like, 'You know what, I'll do a couple of hours. I can't do it all night,' but I appreciate that they can help. Some guys are going to stay in their cars because we do have a lot of families living in cars on the island. So we're going to represent that too.”

Gillies said this idea also stems from food insecurity concerns and the much-discussed housing crisis that has many island residents moving from place to place on a regular basis. Gillies said they wanted to make the warming place the beneficiaries of all money raised to further support them on top of the many things the knights already do such as providing help and support through volunteer work at the homeless shelter and taking turns to prepare Sunday dinners for the shelter by utilizing the commercial kitchen in St. Marys.

"I hope this grows into something," Gillies continued. "We've also invited a bunch of town board of select people, some town manager type people. We're inviting them to come and just sit with us. Just come sit with us for an hour or two, and maybe we start a conversation, maybe we throw some ideas around, who knows where it's going to go – but I feel like it was something that needed to be started, and hopefully it grows.”

You can support any of the Knights by pledging to donate any amount of money per hour to their cause. If you are interested, you can email kofc2612@gmail.com to learn more and pick a knight to sponsor.

"I do hope that maybe we don't have to have this in three or four years, because we have figured something out," Gillies said."That would be awesome. I don't know that we're going to do it because I don't have the solution and I know that I don't have the solution and I always say if you're not part of solution, you're part of the problem kind of thing. But let's talk about it because someone's idea might spark an idea to somebody else. That would spark another idea that would formulate and work into this great idea."

The Knights of Columbus Council #2612 was established in 1926 and named after a beloved priest of that era, Fr. T. J. McGee. Today, the knights strive "to continue our fraternal mission of service and charity." You can learn more about the organization here.