Westside Christian Students Supply Sleeping Bags for Area Homeless - 01/12/10 >Portland, Ore. — January 12, 2010 —Responding to the recent spell of frigid temperatures in December, Westside Christian High School students teamed up with Beaverton-based non-profit organization Ncompass to provide warm sleeping bags for Portland's homeless.

"It is easy to take a warm and secure home for granted," stated Westside freshman student council representative Alyssa Brooks. "When temperatures dipped into the teens, we started to think about how horrible it would be to live on the streets. So we did a little research and found out that you need a city permit to hand out sleeping bags, and that Ncompass was the only local organization to be awarded permission this winter." Having teamed up with Ncompass in previous years, Westside students jumped at the opportunity to help ensure a successful collection of sleeping bags.

After a concerted appeal to Westside families, the students watched as a mountain of sleeping bags grew in the school lobby. An initial load of 150 donated sleeping bags was delivered to the Ncompass Christmas Festival on Sunday, December 20. Numerous Westside students were on hand to help pass out the sleeping bags. "A lot of homeless people showed up to the festival," said Brooks. "It felt good to be able to help them out with a new sleeping bag." Even after the Christmas break sleeping bags were still flowing in the door.

This community service effort is an example of Westside's unique program, Westside Outside. Through this program, Westside students have the opportunity to serve the homeless in Portland, help the needy throughout the valley, and change the future for children around the globe.

Ncompass is a non-profit service organization that began in 2006 when a group of Oregon State University students saw a broken and suffering world and decided to pool their resources together to try to do something about it. Ncompass started in Portland, Oregon with a mission to fight against the suffering and injustice witnessed around us on a daily basis.


# # #
About Westside Christian High School
Westside Christian High School, located in Lake Oswego, Oregon, was founded in 1981 with a mission to equip servant leaders in God's Kingdom for the next generation by educating and developing the whole person. Westside has a student body of approximately 300 students. For more information visit www.wchsonline.org or call 503.697.4711.