When I heard about the winter sleep-out, I had wanted to learn about and experience it. I know I'm lucky to be born in a family which owns a house, parents who have stable jobs, comparing to the homeless' experience. While I am lucky that I will have a safe, protected environment to sleep in, compared to the horrible nights people who are homeless have to deal with.

When I started to fundraise, my family and I made a little pamphlet to put in our neighbour's letterboxes, explaining what the Winter Sleepout is. I included the letter we received from the school and the itinerary for the night. I also included an introduction of myself and let them know when I would be walking around knocking on doors for donations if they were interested.

Most of the people on the street that I talked to were interested in how my schooling was, what my school was about or to tell me that one of their family members had attended Aquinas. It made me feel really proud to be an Aquinian. There were a fair amount of positive comments made about what we were doing and about how the school encourages the boys to do volunteer work and to give back to the community.

I was looking forward to the experience, even though I knew it will be cold and I wouldn't have eaten since lunchtime, and had done sport earlier.

We did it because it helped us have a better understanding of what it's like for homeless people and what they have to go through at night. Dealing with hunger, weather, other people who may make them feel like they are frightened and alone.

It was fun and interesting as I got to be with friends in a new experience at school but not at the usual times. I enjoyed having people from the Salvation Army come in and have a talk with us, learning about the situations homeless people have to deal with or things they are living without. The Salvation Army had us do a few activities which expanded our overall knowledge.

For me, it meant learning a new perspective or feelings, so whenever I now see someone who is homeless, I empathise with them better.