Panama City- Bay School District officials estimate there are more than 800 students registered as homeless.

The homeless problem inspired some Bay High School students to form a club called Streetlights.

The group held a fundraiser on Wednesday, with a message.

“After bouncing around from house to house, I became homeless. I lived in a tent for six months,” said Nina, a Bay High senior.

Nina is one of 52 Bay High students with unstable homes or no homes at all.

Nina’s teacher has since taken her in, but not all homeless students have that option.

“If it wasn’t for him and his wife, I wouldn’t be here. I was going to have to drop out so I could take care of myself and get as much money as I could, just to live,” said Nina.

“It’s shocking to understand that this is a real problem and it’s not something that you just see on the street corner when someone is begging for change. They’re just trying to get through high school, like me,” said Sahara Peters, a member of Streetlights.

Organizers of the Cardboard Clips event allowed students to pay three dollars for a manicure or a haircut from the Step Ahead Cosmotology School.
Then, organizers encouraged students to experience a small part of what it’s like to be homeless.

“We wanted you to walk through and basically experience what a homeless student would need,” said organizer Nathan Beck.

Students assembled backpacks filled with hygiene items for their homeless classmates.

Wednesday’s event raised several hundred dollars that will go directly back to the 52 homeless Bay High students.

Streetlights is hoping to eventually create a scholarship fund.