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Journalism of Courage
Christmas is a time of high spirit and love. However this year, there will be much joy in the act of giving and spreading smiles as the Euston Station, London, opens its doors to over 200 homeless people on Christmas Day and offer them dinner and a place to sleep. This is the first time that the open space of the station will be filled with Christmas decorations, with tables laid out and filled with food. Over 30 volunteers from the Network Rail and homelessness charities St Mungo’s and Streets Kitchen are organising the event.
“Many people become homeless because of relationship breakdowns so Christmas can be a particularly lonely time for some of our residents,” community and event manager for St Mungo’s Beth Nordon told BBC. On hearing the news, social media users not only rejoiced and offered to help, but also urged other stations to do something similar. Some even questioned why something was being offered just for one day and why not everyday.
Here are a couple of tweets to indicate how the news was received online:
For those concerned about whether such an initiative – as wonderful as it is – could hamper the usual functioning of the station and inconvenience daily commuters, it’s important to note that the trains don’t run on Christmas, hence, providing an open and empty space for the event at the station. “Using a station to give homeless people a Christmas dinner and some festive cheer is a great thing to do. I’m proud to say we’ve had lots of interest from Network Rail colleagues to volunteer to come along on the day to help out. Everything, including people’s time, has been donated,” said Steve Naybour, head of transformation, Network Rail’s track team.
