Brian Edwards was set to usher in winter in a raw and unfiltered fashion this past Friday. The board chairman of the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry, or WARM, arrived near the Waynesboro YMCA Friday morning armed with a tent and a chair. He was to spend 24 hours battling the elements in what he called “Homeless Alone: A Stay WARM Challenge.
” He also had a minimal amount of food and water to use during his stay. His goal for the second straight year was to experience firsthand the challenges he witnesses the homeless experience every day during the coldest time of the year — and make those challenges clearer to the public. “Folks should be aware of what their homeless neighbors are experiencing,’’ Edwards told The News Virginian soon after arriving at his campsite Friday.
As a WARM leader, Edwards sees much of the area’s homeless population spending their nights at WARM’s rotating cold-weather shelter at local churches between Thanksgiving and Easter each year. Brian Edwards, board chairman of the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry, sits by the camp where he intends to sleep overnight, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, raising awareness for the area's homeless population which does it every night.
Edwards can rattle off impressive statistics about the national homeless crisis, which is afflicting cities across the country. Between 2022 and 2023, unsheltered homelessness increased by 9.7%, disproportionately in major American cities, according to the National Alliance to End .
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