VENTURA : Camp-Out Night to Benefit Homeless

A campaign to raise $40,000 to shelter the homeless will begin Friday night with a camp-out at Emma Wood State Beach north of Ventura.

Participants will pay $25 each to spend the night at the oceanfront park, starting about 6 p.m. They will eat a meal that the American Red Cross provides to homeless people at the Oxnard Armory. A group of homeless people who live in the Ventura River bottom lands will entertain.

The armory is open to the homeless on cold or rainy nights, and about 70 people seek shelter there, said Mike Goth, the Red Cross shelter coordinator. The fund-raising campaign is aimed at keeping the shelter open every night during the winter, Goth said.

In addition to holding the camp-out, campaign organizers are asking businesses to contribute $687 to pay the cost of keeping the shelter open for one night, and individuals are being asked to contribute $13.11, the estimated cost of sheltering and feeding one homeless person for one night.

Details are available by calling Goff at 643-9928.