With temperatures dropping, they knew they had a long night ahead of them.

"We're having a sleep out for the homeless. What we're doing we're going to stay outside we have music, hot chocolate, we'll have a band out here. We're just trying to raise awareness for the homeless in the Kanawha City, Charleston, Institute and the Cross Lanes area," said Sam Scroggins, West Virginia State University's Phi Beta Sigma Inc. community service fraternity president.

They brought with them the essentials.

"This fur coat. And my gloves," said Scroggins.

"Got a jacket in the car," said Yuri Hinton, the fraternity secretary.

And of course, the jams. But they were hoping those who joined them will bring a few things, too.

"We're trying to get people to come out here and bring canned goods or monetary donations, clothing, any non perishable items that could be beneficial to the homeless society," said Scroggins.

"Around campus they have donations of clothing and canned goods all the time but we wanted to have something where people could join together and be a part of something different," said Vice President, Larry Hinton.

Coats, gloves and blankets are all essentials on a night like this. But the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity knows that's not a luxury for the homeless.

"Homeless people, they don't have just anything at their will and need so we wanted to, I guess, get al close without being crazy that we could," Scroggins said.

"For the people that are going to benefit from it, I think they're going to appreciate it a lot more coming from college students," added Yuri Hinton.

"We could be sleeping in our dorms but we're choosing to sleep outside and be outside as long as we can so I hope we make a difference," said Larry Hinton.

The Phi Beta Sigma fraternity plans to distribute all their collected items early next week. They've picked out several homeless shelters in the community.

This article was provided by: WOWK
Written by: Kristen Sell