The Chronicle Telegram, Cindy Liese
GRAFTON — It was 3 a.m. Sunday, and the temperature had dipped to the 30s.

Lauren Ferritto, 14, and Jordan Kushner, 13, were finally asleep in their cardboard box, huddled under sleeping bags and blankets.

All of a sudden, police officers started shaking the box.

“They said, ‘You have to move — you’re creating a disturbance,’ ” said Lauren, a ninth-grader at Midview High School.

She nudged Jordan, who was very angry about being forced to move.

“I got out of the box and shoved it,” Jordan said.

The two teens were among 24 young parishioners at Our Lady Queen of Peace who got a small taste of what it was like to be homeless.

“It made me realize what people go through on a daily basis,” said Jordan, an eighth-grader at Midview Middle School. “A box is cold, uncomfortable and hard.”

After spending the night outside the former Assumption Church on Elm Street, the teens said they were hungry, dirty and smelly.

But they still made the rounds at Mass on Sunday and collected $2,064 for the St. Joseph Shelter at Reid Avenue and West 15th Street in Lorain. Read the rest of this article.