The Vassar Volunteers, HungerAction and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life sponsored “Faces of Homelessness,” a panel of three members of the Poughkeepsie community and two members of the college community who shared their stories about homelessness and poverty.  Organized by Sari Toplin ’03 with the help of Sam Speers, director of religious and spiritual life, the event was intended to be, as Speers put it, “a reminder that people who have spent time on the streets are people and that their situations are not necessarily all that different [from ours] as we imagine they might be.”  Toplin agreed, adding that she hoped such panels would continue into the future.  “This event,” she said, “is about connecting people to people as human beings and not constantly throwing around this concept of the ‘other’ who live on the street and is dirty and stupid….  My hope it that through sharing stories…it will trigger something in their hearts, and they’ll think about the issues.”     The Miscellany News