Braving below-freezing temperatures, more than 40 Maria Regina High School students slept outdoors overnight on Friday, January 10, in cardboard boxes in the annual Box City campaign to raise awareness and support for the region’s unhoused population, including children.

During the 12-hour solidarity event, students led hourly prayers for the at-risk population. They were asked to contribute $20 to fund future breakfast runs and support Midnight Run in Dobbs Ferry.

In Maria Regina’s previous 21 Box City campaigns, students raised about $50,000 to help unhoused people in Westchester communities and New York City. Students brought cardboard boxes, blankets and pillows. Warming stations were available in the school’s courtyard where the event took place.

Midnight Run coordinates over 1,000 relief missions per year, in which volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools and other civic groups distribute food, clothing, blankets and personal care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City, according to the organization’s website.