The chilly morning weather was a rough way to follow a night full of wind, train horns, noisy traffic and a rousing from a local police officer.

"She came down here and shook our boxes," a sleepy Nicole Connor said of the early morning visit from the officer. "I had just fallen asleep."

Welcome to the world of the homeless.

The five girls joined one male schoolmate and three students from Ben Eielson High School in simulating the life of the homeless for a night.

As part of an "overnight for the homeless" fund-raiser, the students hung out at the park, huddled around a nearby campfire for warmth, endured the curious looks of passersby and slept in boxes.

Each student collected donations for the Fairbanks Rescue Mission, a faith-based organization that has struggled financially recently.

Event organizer and North Pole High senior Courtney Doyel planned to finish counting the donations this weekend and take them to the mission, the main option for homeless adults to find help in Fairbanks.

In addition to earning money, the event was also designed to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness in the area.

While the boxes were a nice touch, they did not represent the many ways homeless people live in the Fairbanks area, said Leona Allridge, homeless liaison for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

Allridge joined students at the downtown park, located near the intersection of 5th Avenue and Santa Claus Lane, at the start of the event Friday night to share her insight about the struggles of local people to find permanent housing.

Fairbanks' homeless population is more difficult to detect than in other communities because of the lack of obvious signs such as people sleeping on the street, said Allridge.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner