Governor, First Lady spend night outside to spread awareness

PALMER — Having Gov. Bill Walker and his wife Donna out for Cardboard City this year was a special treat for Family Promise supporters, but Alaska’s leading couple is not inexperienced when it comes to sleeping outside.

The annual overnight fundraiser for homelessness prevention and awareness at the Alaska State Fairgrounds this weekend marked the Walkers’ second night in cardboard boxes, after participating in Covenant House’s nationwide Sleep Out in Anchorage last fall.

That first experience, Donna Walker said, was less than pleasant.

“I was just miserable for most of the night,” she said to the dozens in attendance at Cardboard City Friday evening. “I could barely get out of that box the next morning.”

Having grown up in Hawaii and California, Alaska’s First Lady said it took a lot of convincing on the part of her Fairbanks-born husband to get her to spend a single-digit-degree November night in a shelter made from refrigerator boxes.

The governor, on the other hand, was quite at home, he said.

“It was snowing that night, and actually I thought it was kind of mystical,” he said. “I enjoyed it immensely.”

In the end, it was an eye-opening experience for both of them.

“It just gave me a real sense of appreciation for what was one night for me and what so many people are going through night, after night, after night,” Donna Walker said.

Gov. Walker said he was even able to assist a young homeless man he met at the Covenant House event who looking for a job by allowing the youth to shadow him for a day in Juneau. The young man went on to get his GED and find employment.

“It was fun to see that kind of enthusiasm and drive to kind of get his life together,” Walker said.

So when the couple got the invite to Cardboard City — a summer event that, for the first time in years, didn’t get rained on at all — they were ready and willing to accept the challenge and combat homelessness with a faith-based organization once again.

“We know that as we serve the least of these, it is a gift to God, bringing honor and glory to him, and I know he is smiling down on us all tonight and saying, ‘well done, Family Promise Mat-Su, well done indeed,’” she said.

Gov. Walker thanked Family Promise and related agencies, as well as individuals, for their efforts to prevent and spread awareness about homelessness. His position in office, he said, has helped him to see both the state’s problems and the solutions presented by agencies like Family Promise more clearly.

“I think by being governor I am exposed to situations that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to, and so it really has broadened my perspective of some of the challenges that are out there, but also, (I’ve seen) some incredible Alaskans … pull together for the good of those who are less fortunate,” he said.

The Walkers said they did bring a monetary donation to match their donation in time for the event, but did not disclose the dollar amount.

The helpers

Due to Gov. Walker’s late appearance as a result of rush-hour traffic from the Anchorage airport Friday evening — he’d rushed in from Juneau that afternoon — speeches by homelessness prevention agencies and former Family Promise clients were brief, but mentions were made of several other organizations that help the homeless in the Mat-Su Valley: Connect Palmer and Sarah’s House, Knik House and Blood ‘n’ Fire Ministries, Alaska Family Services, the Wasilla Homeless Committee, Mat-Su Health Foundation, Access Alaska, Salvation Army, Valley Residential Services, Valley Charities and MY House.

Dave Rose with the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness laid down some relevant numbers, noting that Alaska’s minimum wage is $9.75 per hour and that, coincidentally, the average rent of a one-bedroom home here is $975 per month. That means that, if a person was working 40 hours per week at minimum wage (which is unlikely, given the nature of minimum-wage jobs), that person would need to spend 62.5 percent of their monthly income on rent alone. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recommends that 30 percent or less of a household’s income be spent on housing.

“We have a lot of folks who are hard workers and they’re one paycheck away, or one broken arm away from missing a paycheck, and then missing the rent. We’ve seen that time and time again,” Rose said.

But because of the coalition (of which Family Promise is a part), he said, thousands of people have been able to prevent that.

“We’ve done homelessness prevention in the Valley like no one else in the state, like no one else in the northwest region of the United States,” Rose said.

Family Promise Board President John Weaver said the Mat-Su shelter, in partnership with 13 local churches, has provided 30,728 shelter nights for individuals and families since 2006.

Fun for everyone

Money raised for Cardboard City this year was still being counted as of Saturday evening — as of 5:30 p.m. the amount was over $7,000 — but the event’s success was evident enough in the smiles on the faces of the participants.

“I feel like a little kid at Girl Scout Camp!” said former Knik House resident Amber Bolam while decorating a t-shirt for her first Cardboard City on Friday night.

Trinity Lutheran Church member Shirley Platt, now 83, prided herself on being the oldest resident this year, and raising almost $2,000 for Family Promise, thanks to a long list of sponsors.

“I didn’t expect that,” she said.

From inside her castle of cardboard, Forever Endeavor art store owner Tara Pollock said she and her father Dan Pollock and her 8-year-old nephew, Corbin Sullivan, raised a humble sum of $141 — pretty good for only starting their fundraising efforts two days before the event, she said.

In any case, Cardboard City is a good reminder of how lucky they are, Dan Pollock said.

“I always say if I hadn’t married her mother I’d be living in a cardboard box,” he joked.

“That is something that he actually says,” Tara Pollock acknowledged.

Saturday morning, first-time Cardboard City participant and Sarah’s House representative Ashley Jenkins said she’d love to participate again next year.

“It was really awesome,” she said.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.