June 22nd I participated in the Vinnies Sleepout at the Gold Coast. It was my third sleepout, and a very different experience to the previous sleepouts I had been at in Sydney. “The Gold Coast do things differently” they said.
Apart from the fact that this was 900 km closer to the Equator, the location was also a little more sheltered than the waterfront in Sydney. The CBUS Super Stadion is in Robina and we made our cardboard beds in the hospitality area upstairs. It was on concrete, but it was clean, and there was hardly a draught.
It was also a very different order of events: whereas in Sydney the emphasis was on empathy with those who had become homeless through bad fortune, abuse or just bad luck, at the Gold Coast it was more of a social event. There was entertainment with a live band, a rapper and a magician and there was a very entertaining MC. There was a soup kitchen and a coffee bar. There were also several speakers who talked about the way funds were used. When we were dismissed at around 10 pm, there were many who stayed up later and chatted.
It was a lovely event for a good cause, but very different. The Gold Coast raises more money per capita than any other area in Australia, so no complaints, it’s all about the outcomes. But in hindsight the Sydney events left me more engaged and full of stories, whereas at the GC I went home, happy the job was done.
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