When attending Smithfield Middle School in North Richland Hills in 2019, Zane Sheffield founded the Back the Homeless club. The signature event for the group was the "Slackathon," of which they hosted the first the same year.
Now a sophomore at Birdville High School, the Slackathon is back, and Sheffield describes it as "the run for the rest of us." He tells NBC DFW, "A Slackathon is a .5k. You're getting donuts, pizza, chips, drinks. It's just an array of food so that you can be the best slacker."
The event was canceled last year because of the pandemic, and Sheffield and the group decided to add some Covid precautions to this year's race. Instead of running the 1,600 steps in the .5k, you stay in your car and drive along a path in front of Birdville High School and gather food along the way.
Back the Homeless helps to raise enough funds to prepare 200 specially stuffed backpacks for homeless folks living in Tarrant County. Sheffield explained, "We partnered with a backpack corporation and each backpack is specially made for the homeless. It has multiple compartments and a rain poncho attached to it, so they can just pull it out. It has an anti-theft deterrent, so they can just clip into onto themselves. Inside we put shampoo, water bottles, body wash, sanitary stuff, anything that will help them out."
