Whiz Kids: Blind Brook Students Organize Sleep-a-Thon to Raise Awareness About Homelessness

Each week, Rye Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens, and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Patch Whiz Kid.  Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to satta@ patch.com.

Here's our story on this week's Whiz Kids: 

Nikta Daijavad, 16, junior at Blind Brook High School; Renee Mango, 16, sophomore; Danny Ullman, 17, senior.

Whiz Kids' Accomplishments: The three Blind Brook High School students are working together to organize the second annual at King Street Athletic Field in Rye Brook. During the overnight event, Rye Brook residents and students will sleep outside for one night so they can experience in a small way what it is like to be homeless.

Keys to Awesomeness: Last year, "Sleep for Solutions" set a precedent when it became Westchester's first ever sleep-a-thon to raise money and awareness for the homeless. Danny Ullman, now a senior at Blind Brook, came up with the idea for the event because it is a topic about which he is passionate.

More than 100 people attended last year's sleep-a-thon, and Danny and his fellow organizers are hoping for even more when the event kicks off at 8 p.m. on May 21. 

Last year, everyone from Rye Brook Mayor Joan Feinstein to Congresswoman Nita Lowey attended. The students are still hoping to line up guest speakers and sponsors for the event. It will run almost the same as last year: participants bring a sleeping bag and bedding materials, which they use to sleep on the field overnight. The next morning they donate all the items. People are also encouraged to make monetary donations, all of which will go to the Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless.

However, the students are adding a different twist to this May's "Sleep for Solutions."

This year, people will build makeshift shelters out of cardboard and duct tape. The students will distribute fact sheets about homelessness and each attendee will have to write a fact—the one that inspired them most—on the outside of each shelter. 

“It’s kind of a way to further the experience that people have with homelessness, if only for a night,” said Danny, who runs his own charity called Hearth for All.

Last year's event raised just under $4,000 and donations included more than two vans full of clothing, toiletries, blankets and pillows. This year, the event's organizers hope to raise $5,000.

All of this is a big undertaking, especially for a teenager, so Danny recruited fellow Blind Brook students Renee Mango and Nikta Daijavad to help with the project.

Renee said she hopes as many as 200 people will come to the event, all of whom she, Danny and Nikta hope to educate about an issue that is happening throughout the county and the entire world.

“It’s the main issue going on today in society and I don’t think that anyone should have to go to sleep not in a house and not in a warm place. Everybody deserves a home,” said Renee, who attended last year's event.

Nikta said the event "is a really great way to get involved." She and Renee are planning on taking organizing the third annual "Sleep for Solutions" after Danny graduates this year.

For more information on Sleep for Solutions, visit the Hearth for All website.

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