Kristen Miller, 17, of Barrington, tapes her cardboard shelter together in preparation for a night outdoors. At left, Anna Faver-Hammond, 18, left, Amy Carbone, and Helen Ward, both 17, all of Barrington, discuss how to put their shelter together.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

BARRINGTON

It was a bone-chilling lesson about the challenges Rhode Islanders face when they have no place to live.

Protected by sleeping bags, blankets and cardboard boxes — scrounged from trash bins or donated by Gil’s Television & Appliances in Bristol and Raymour & Flanigan in Seekonk — 134 teens found themselves confronting wind chills in the single digits as they spent Saturday night and early Sunday morning living on the high school’s wind-whipped soccer field as part of the Project Hope event.

“It was in the low 20s and the wind blew from the beginning of the day till after midnight,” said Elizabeth Crawley, vice president of Beyond Our Walls (BOW), which sponsored the event. “It was 15- to 30-mile-per-hour gusts. It was one of the coldest nights we’ve had in the last couple of months.”

“It was on an open field, so it got pretty cold,” said Ann Manchester-Molak, a BOW volunteer.

But most of the teens — from Barrington High School, St. Andrews School and local churches — made it through the night under the supervision of about 50 adults and fortified by sandwiches of ham and cheese or peanut butter and jelly.

About 500 other sandwiches, created in assembly-line fashion in the Barrington High School cafeteria, were sent to the Crossroads Rhode Island to feed real homeless people.

The students did more than make sandwiches and survive the elements.

There was a showing of Lost in Woonsocket, the documentary that featured Normand Cartier, who lived in a tent in the woods of Woonsocket when he was homeless. Cartier was one of two people whose lives have been touched by homelessness who spoke to the teens in small groups.

“They were quite spellbound by what he had to say,” Crawley said. “They had good questions and conversations with him after the talk.”

She said the money raised by the event is still coming in. Each student pledged $20 and another $200 was collected at the event.

“We got lots and lots of donations of clothing, and we got a pretty good amount of food donations” for TAP-IN, she said.

TAP-IN, which stands for Touch A Person In Need, is the Barrington-based organization that helps needy families throughout the area.

Crawley said she got to talk to one girl about the experience when the cold sent her looking for an extra blanket. “I said, ‘So what do you think?’ She said, ‘I didn’t realize there were homeless people this close to home.’ ”

gemery@projo.com