Community participants will sleep in boxes for one night this week to support future plans to help the homeless.

Trulight Ministries has been helping the homeless community in Zanesville for over two years. With its third annual One Night in a Box event, the ministry is hoping to raise money to meet the real needs of the people it serves.

“As we’ve been dealing, or ministering, to the homeless, we’ve been able to find out what it is they actually need,” Ed Swartz, Executive Director of Trulight Ministries, said. “And just having a place to store stuff and having a place where they can come and take showers … there’s really no place around for them to go get a shower or get cleaned up.”

Trulight has purchased a new building in order to meet those specific needs. With some renovations, the ministry is hoping to provide a facility for homeless people to have a locker for storage and showers to help with hygiene.

“I had a guy that came to me one Sunday and he had gotten a job but with no place to shower or clean up, he realized, ‘You know, it’s just a matter of time before they’re going to start realizing I can’t keep my personal hygiene up and they’re going to end up firing me,’” Swartz said.

In addition to the showers, Swartz saw that storage was a large need. As the seasons change, many items that are acquired for warmth for the winter or lighter wear in the summer are discarded at the end of the season because there is no place to store them.

There are approximately 35 community participants that had signed up to sleep in a box as of last week. Each person that raises $100 worth of donations receives an event T-shirt, although there is no donation minimum to participate.

“The whole idea is for them to get sponsors to donate money to our ministry on their behalf for sleeping outside in the box overnight,” Swartz said.

Prominent community figures including Troy Balderson, Brian Hill and other elected officials were invited to participate in the event, or at least attend the community block party.

The third annual fundraiser is set to take place on Friday, Aug. 31 beginning with a community block party. A live band will play from 7 to 9 p.m. Free food and refreshments will be offered.

Once the festivities settle down, community participants that are sleeping in a box will retire to their cardboard for the night at their leisure.