GB East/West silence homelessness

GREEN BAY - Two high school rivals are working together to help homelessness in Green Bay.

Green Bay East and West high schools held "Silent Night Against Homelessness" during its girls and boys basketball doubleheader on Friday night.

For the 190th meeting, in a more than one hundred year old rivalry, one might expect intensity. What someone wouldn't guess is near silence from the crowd for almost the entire first quarter of the game.

“The whole basis of it is for the first ten points of the game, the kids don't say a word and on the tenth point the kids erupt and go crazy,” said Rick Rosinski, the head boys basketball coach at East.

The reason for the silence is to raise awareness for homelessness at each school. Each school has about 25 families classified as homeless.

“It is becoming a big issue and the only way we're going to wrap our arms around it is if we come together as an entire community,” said Robyn Davis of Freedom House.

Besides ticket sales, raffles and other contests are being held around the games. The money will go to Freedom House. The organization will then help get the money to the needy students at each school.

“Everyone has really come together to support each other and to contribute in any way they can,” said Courtney Kuehn, a teacher at East.

As for the silent start to each game, the idea came from a Youtube video. Taylor University in Indiana stayed silent during a 2012 game until the first team scored ten points to help people without shoes.

At both East and West, staff had to break it to students, their job was to cheer at ten points, no matter which school reached it first.

“This whole night is based on East and West coming together as one to recognize the cause, so hopefully the fans will understand 'hey, doesn't matter who scores the tenth point, we are all coming together and we're all cheering,” said Rosinski.

While the silent stunt worked, organizers say the true win is the money raised for the homeless.