“It Can Happen to Anyone”: Community Marches to Honor Homeless Memorial Day

On the first day of winter and also the longest night of the year, the community comes together to remember those who passed while being homeless.

More than 100 names on this list are of those being remembered at the service for National Homeless Memorial Day.

It is the second year Elim Lutheran Church is hosting the event.

Supporters met at the U.S Bank Plaza to pay tribute by marching to the church.

“It’s a year today I was homeless,” says Fargo man, Doug Schoeszler. 

Doug spent nine years homeless before he was able to get back on his feet.

During his time on the streets, he says he has seen others not make it through the brutal winter weather.

He now partakes in the march to show his support, in hopes of raising awareness.

Schoeszler says, “Not only to remember but not to forget, it can happen to anybody.”

Families also came to show their support.

This Fargo man brought his son to show him the importance of how life could easily be stripped away.

“Show him that we’re kind of in a well off area right now but you know something could happen where someone can lose a job. So homeless can affect everyone,” says Fargo man, Christopher Deery. 

The pastor of Elim Lutheran Church believes it is important to have a day to acknowledge loved ones.

“When someone passes away either in a state of homeless or a result of it, very often their friends and the shelter advocates and the people they know in the community don’t have an opportunity to mourn there passing or grief. So this provides an opportunity for people to do that,” says Pastor Sue Koesterman,

With the growth of Fargo–Moorhead, Schoeszler wants the community to know that homelessness shouldn’t be put on the back burner.

“Somebody needs to talk for them not against them. They’re not all bad people,” says Schoeszler.

Pastor Sue says since the F–M Sheltering Churches project, there hasn’t been an unsheltered death due to exposure.

Churches and shelters in the metro will continue to open their doors to the homeless.