A group of Dalhousie University students will turn in the comforts of home to sleep on the streets for the next five nights all in an effort to raise money for homeless youth in Halifax.
Six members of the Dalhousie Commerce Society have accepted the 5 Days for the Homeless challenge and will start sleeping outside Saturday night with only a sleeping bag.
For Katie Flanagan, this will be her third time sleeping on the streets to raise money.
"The experience of the whole campaign is very, very eye-opening and it's very humbling," she said.
The participants will have some other strict rules to live by during the campaign. They must remain on campus and the only food and drink they can have is through donations.
There's no access to showers and washrooms are accessible only when campus buildings are open. It also means no cell phones or social media.
"You're getting all types of weather, snow, rain, hail. You're getting all sorts of people stopping by," Flanagan said.
"You get to meet so many fantastic people from the Dalhousie community and the Halifax community as a whole."
The 5 Days for the Homeless campaign is a national fundraiser that began at the University of Alberta in 2005. Universities across Canada now take part, but Dalhousie is the only school east of Montreal
Students hope to raise $10,000 for Phoenix Youth Programs. Almost $3,000 has already been raised through an online campaign.
Flanagan said just as important is the awareness raised, especially around youth homelessness.
"It's not their choice to be living on the streets," she said.
"A lot of them, it's just they been dealt a bad hand, but they're just like you and I. There's just so much strength and resilience."