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Catholic students at The State University of New York at Oneonta and Hartwick College won't be getting too much sleep the night of Oct. 17.

Members of the colleges' Newman community, a campus ministry center for Catholics at non-Catholic colleges, will be traveling to New York City on a "Midnight Run" to deliver clothing and bagged lunches to homeless people.

The Newman Community is "open to any students," noted campus minister Peter Derway, who also serves St. Mary's parish in Oneonta.

Funded by the Albany Diocese, the Newman club makes Midnight Run its major service project every semester. Midnight Run, based downstate in Westchester County, is "a volunteer organization dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless," according to its website. Volunteer groups take vans into Manhattan and pass out bags of clothes, food and personal care items to people in need.

"We've been collecting donations for the past month," Mr. Derway told The Evangelist. The group has been amassing clothing, travel-sized toiletries and food items.

About 20 students from the colleges will make five stops in New York City to hand out the donated goods. "We're planning on bringing sandwiches, chips, granola bars, cookies, fruit snacks, Cup-o-Noodles - the homeless can take those and get free water from Starbucks -- so they'll get a bagged lunch at night and then the Ramen [noodles] for lunch the next day," Mr. Derway said.

Speaking with the people on the streets is a major component of the group's mission. Andrew Jensen, a junior at SUNY-Oneonta who'll make his third Midnight Run this month, said the people he's met "like to talk about their life story and tell jokes. It really opens up our eyes to see that these people are people just like us.

"It's actually really interesting," he said. "These people who are poorer than us in possessions are, in other respects, richer than us. They have a better outlook on life than we do."

"We're constantly reminded in Scripture to serve the poor and work with the poor," Mr. Derway told The Evangelist. "That's what this is: the chance to do that."[[In-content Ad]]

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