Participants will be sleeping on and under cardboard for the night.
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An outdoor sleepout to raise awareness and funds for youth homelessness is taking place overnight tonight at Shepparton’s Deakin Reserve.
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Hosted by the Salvation Army North East Youth Service, the event aims to give participants a taste of what it feels like to sleep rough, with sheets of cardboard acting as mattresses and shelter for sleeping bodies throughout the night.
More than 100 tickets had been sold on Tuesday morning, but registrations are still open until 7pm.
“We are so warmed by and thankful for everyone’s support for this inaugural event,” Salvation Army NEYS youth participation worker Jim Gow said.
In conjunction with the sleepout event, local runners Peter Ralph and Vic Bovalino begin their 100 Miles From Home run from Epping to Shepparton at 6am today.
Initially, the pair had estimated the 161km distance would take them around 20 hours to complete, but with the temperature forecasted to be warmer than anticipated at the time the challenge was set, they think their arrival might be closer to 6am tomorrow, coinciding with the end of the sleepout.
Peter Ralph is looking forward to challenging himself by running from Epping to Shepparton.
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Shepparton runner Vic Bovalino is hoping he and Peter Ralph can inspire some more donations for youth homelessness in the north-east Salvation Army region.
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Mr Ralph said they were feeling well-prepared and confident and looking forward to challenging themselves and hopefully raising more funds.
They will be video-called about halfway through their run to chat with the crowd at Deakin Reserve during the fundraiser and will have a live tracking link uploaded to the event page for participants to follow their journey.
The event is fully supervised and drug-, alcohol-, smoke- and vape-free.
∎ Tax-deductible tickets for chief executives, VIPs and business owners are $199 or $49 for the general public and include a light dinner. They can be booked here.
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