DECATUR - If you build it, they won't necessarily come.

That turned out to be the case Friday night for the city's outdoor homeless awareness event at Grace United Methodist Church to conclude National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

Organizers outnumbered participants in a Veterans' Stand Down that was planned in conjunction with the traditional Box City.

Ten military veterans received free sleeping bags and other donations collected on their behalf, but no youth showed up to experience homelessness by spending the night in a cardboard box.

Still, there were positives from the event, including an important monetary donation and discovering potential tenants for an upcoming supportive housing project.

A dozen volunteers from the Mid-Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross, meanwhile, prepared and served a chili and sandwich supper, a half-dozen soldiers from the Illinois National Guard pitched tent large enough to sleep 14 or more, and five of the seven people who stayed all night helped plan the event.

Among them was Kathleen Taylor, executive director of the Good Samaritan Inn.

"I'm disappointed we didn't get any youth or very many members of the (Decatur-Macon County) Homeless Council," she said, "but the people who were here had a meaningful experience, and some needs were met."

Kenneth Wheeler, 51, an Army veteran who has been staying at the Salvation Army's homeless shelter for four months, said he was grateful to receive a sleeping bag, some socks and some shaving supplies.

He added that this is the third time he's landed at the Salvation Army since alcoholism began making it almost impossible six years ago to hold a job or keep a roof over his head.

"I never took advantage of programs that could have helped me," Wheeler said. "I just didn't listen the first couple times."

Jeanne Robinson, social services director for the Salvation Army, said an average of six or seven of the 30 men her shelter can house are veterans, but pride keeps them from sharing their problems.

"They survived worse things than living on the street," she said. "It's hard for them to come up and say, 'I need help.' "

She believes Friday's Stand Down, however, was an important first step in making it easier for veterans to open up.

The event also was successful in attracting donations, including $1,000 for sleeping bags from the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and attracted at least three veterans who had not been enrolled for services at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Decatur.

Among those taking information at a table set up by the Decatur Coalition for Veterans' Concerns were Sharline Hoke and Janet Whitehead of the clinic and Jane Myers of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs. "It's sad to think of even one person being homeless," Hoke said.

Ron Collins, local veterans employment representative for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, also stopped by. "This is so needed; we should do it more than once a year," he said.

Owner Dan O'Loughlin and special projects assistant Lucy Brownlee of D&O Properties One LLC said they were pleased with the number of potential tenants the Stand Down helped them identify. They are creating permanent supportive housing by next summer for at least 18 military veterans who are homeless, disabled and/or low-income under the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

The main portion will create 13 units in the 900 block of West North Street, involve renovation of an apartment building and a two-bedroom house and be called North Street Commons.

In addition, $200,000 of the $848,000 federal grant will be used to renovate other existing housing for veterans.

A count in January showed there were 619 homeless people and 524 individuals at risk of becoming homeless in Macon County, compared to 347 and 494 in 2007.

O'Loughlin and Brownlee said they didn't sleep all that well in the tent but were glad they spent the night. "No matter how I laid on that cot, I touched both sides," O'Loughlin said.

Pat Dawson, a staff assistant for U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, said she slept warmer on a cot inside a heated tent with temperatures hovering above freezing than she did last year in a cardboard box with temperatures in the 20s.

"I was able to take my coat off," Dawson said. "Then I threw some hand warmers into my sleeping bag."

Darsonya Switzer, Homeward Bound's housing program coordinator and chairwoman of the Homeless Council, slept in her SUV as best she could.

She turned on her car only once in the night to warm up.

"I didn't want to call attention to myself," Switzer said. "I couldn't believe how many people there were up and about all night long."

tchurchill@herald-review.com|421-7978