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Fourteen-year-old trades warm bed for a cardboard box in sub-zero temperatures

"If I did it in the summer, I don’t think I would get as much support as I could because it wouldn’t be as hard."

“Hi, I’m Peter Larson, I’ve been sleeping out in a cardboard box since Nov. 15. I’m trying to raise $71,000.”

Larson, 14, a member of Messiah United Methodist Church in Plymouth Minn., sleeps outside to raise money to keep the homeless inside.

“I sleep out each year to raise money for the homeless cause if I don’t, who will? I’ve been doing this for about 8 to 9 years,” he said.

“I sleep out in the winter because really this is probably the harshest conditions they have to sleep out in. If I did it in the summer, I don’t think I would get as much support as I could because it wouldn’t be as hard,” he explained. “The coldest it has ever gotten was around negative -15 a couple years back. This year the coldest it got was like -negative 9.9.”

The money Larson raises goes to Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners, an organization that uses the money for housing needs in the community.

The idea for sleeping outside in the winter came from his dad, who organized a neighborhood sleep out when Peter was in the first grade. Later, young Larson was inspired Bob Fischer, a man who spoke to his Cub Scout troop about raising money to help families.

“Bob Fischer, who started the sleep out, came and talked to us, and he said that $500 would help one family. And it just clicked in my brain that if I could raise $500 dollars, I would be able to help another family. So I set my goal that first year at $500 and from then I’ve just kept on raising it.”

In the eight years that he has been sleeping out, Larson has doubled his fundraising goal each year. Last year, his goal was to raise $30,000, but he ended up raising an astounding $50, 000. This year, his goal is to help 125 families, which means raising more than $71, 000.

“When you find someone in need, one of your first impulses is you want to help them. But some people ignore those impulses and just figure that someone else will. And the sad thing is, if everyone thinks that way, no one’s going to get helped.”–Peter Larson

“Honestly, this is all Peter,” said his father, Bruce. “This was not something that we talked to him into … He wants to go out. There’s never been a night where I’ve said, ‘Pete, you have to go outside and sleep in your box.’ He just goes to bed like he would normally go. Granted, in the morning he gets up like any teenager where I have to shake the box two or three times to get him out.”

Joni Larson is proud of her son.

“He’s a very capable young man and can do just about anything he wants to do. Where so often times we think about ourselves, that’s not who he is. It’s who God made him to be … this is who God made this child to be.”

In 2008, Larson received a Good Samaritan Award, the top youth award from the Commission on United Methodist Men, for sleeping outside in a cardboard box for 40 nights every Christmas season to raise money to combat homelessness.

“At some point in your life I think everyone gets called that way, whether it’s when you’re 5 or when you’re 50 or when you’re one or when you’re 100,” he said. “At some point you’ll get called. It’s whether or not you’re listening.”

The following people contributed to this Profile: 
Audio story by Mike Hickcox; print story by Kathy Gilbert; videography by Carey Moots, Moots Productions Inc. 

UMC.org Profiles are produced by Pam Price, 615-742-5405.

Peter's Spiritual Gifts

• Leadership
• Giving
• Compassion
• Servanthood
• Apostleship

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Peter's Recommended Resources

Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners

Boy Scouts of America