Written by Blake Mathews
Over the past two weeks, tents have come to symbolize Harding’s willingness to go above and beyond to bring aid and shelter to quake-stricken Haiti.
Next week students will be taking that symbolism to the next level with InTents, an overnight camp-out on the front lawn to raise money for the Tents and Tarps program. The event was originally scheduled for Feb. 5 but was postponed to Feb. 12 due to excess rain, which has flooded Harding’s front lawn.
InTents started as a joke between students about camping out on the front lawn in a tent, a joke that Student Association President Bryan Clifton overheard. He brought the idea to Andrew Baker, director of the Institute for Church and Family, after Tents and Tarps had started raising funds, and then to junior print journalism major Sarah Kyle. By the early morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 28, the event was beginning to take shape.
Initially, Kyle said, the plan called for a week of students sleeping in tents on the front lawn. However, logistical problems forced a week down to a weekend, and then to one night. Still, she said, InTents and the resources it would bring in could not wait for the difficulties to be resolved.
“The need for shelter is immediate,” Kyle said. “It’s not even something that they need tomorrow, it’s something that they needed yesterday. It’s something that they needed a week ago.”
The money raised from InTents will go to buy more tents for displaced Haitians. Through Tents and Tarps, Harding students and faculty have already sent 200 tents directly to Haiti and raised about $30,000. SA service director Sky Vanderburg, who is co-directing InTents with Kyle, said he hopes to raise at least $5,000 tonight.
The fundraising will occur on both the corporate and individual levels. Kyle said she is expecting at least $3,000 from local businesses that have already pledged their support for the event. Students will have to raise the rest, but each student will be issued his or her own Kimbia page after singing up to camp out. An online fundraising tool, Kimbia will give students a link to send to friends, family and other businesses, asking for sponsorship and donations.
According to Kyle, InTents will run from roughly 6 p.m. tonight to 6 a.m. tomorrow. The event will begin when tents start going up on the front lawn, though Kyle said she encouraged students to get set up before dark. Students are encouraged to bring and use their own tents, but not owning a tent will not bar anyone from participating. Kyle said students could sign up to borrow a tent for the night, and afterward the tent would be cleaned, dried and shipped off to Haiti with the others.
Once the tents are up, students are not required to stay on the front lawn. Anyone can leave to eat dinner or do homework, but at 9:30 p.m. the planned activities for InTents will begin. For the next few hours the front lawn will be abuzz with live bands and glow-in-the-dark capture the flag. The festivities will finally die down at 12:30 a.m., and at 12:45 all campers will need to be signed in and accounted for. After what Kyle called “tent camp curfew” the students are InTents until the sun comes up.
But the night will be far from over. Jimmy Huff, a professor with personal connections to Haiti, will lead a front lawn devotional at 1 a.m., followed by a pizza party with pizzas donated by local restaurants. Games and fellowship will continue throughout the night, though dedicated stations will be set up for students to pray. Of course, there is also the option of going to sleep.
“It’s basically a Harding University lock-in on the front lawn,” Kyle said.
When the sun comes up Aramark will have breakfast ready for the campers, and Kyle hinted at donations from local donut shops.
With the front lawn temporarily transformed into a co-ed, albeit chaperoned, campground, InTents will be “a unique experience that you’re probably never ever going to have again at Harding,” Kyle said. True to its name, the event will also be an experience for students unaccustomed to camping in wet, cold weather. The overnight low for tonight is forecast at 35 degrees, with an 80 percent chance of rain.
“We’re not going to play it up to try and discourage people, but the event is to not be as comfortable as possible,” Vanderburg said. He said he hoped camping in the rough weather would show solidarity with displaced Haitians.
“We are comfortable Americans. We spend one night out in the cold, and we’ve got a warm room to go back to,” he said. “Haiti is not in a cold situation … but they are exposed to the elements.”
Kyle agreed and said that the minor hardships faced by the campers should help put Haiti’s plight into perspective.
“How hypocritical would it be if a little rain shows up or a little cold shows up, and we’re like, ‘No, we can’t do this. Hold off.’ They’re going through worse,” she said. “If I need a tent for this, how much more do they need a tent?”
After InTents, Vanderburg said he hoped more opportunities to raise money for Haiti would arrive. Harding’s connections in Haiti allow it to move aid to affected areas much faster than traditional relief organizations have been able to, and Vanderburg said he wants to continue using those connections to shelter Haitians affected by the quake.
“The stereotypical Christian service is to pray about something, and a lot of people pray about something in their comfortable, warm rooms,” he said. “We prayed for an opportunity to help these people … I’m proud to be a part of a student body that is modeling smart and heart-filled service.”
The Kimbia pages for InTents participants will be active for the rest of the weekend. After that, donations can still be made at www.tentsandtarps.org. Kyle said the Tents and Tarps program will continue to take donations, buy tents and ship them to Haiti “until there’s no need.”
