Mid-January is typically a miserable time to go camping in Savannah — and that’s precisely why Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 660 on Ogeechee Road is hosting the Homeless Vets Campout this weekend.

Organized as an act of solidarity with Savannah’s homeless veterans, this annual event welcomes VFW members to leave their comfy homes for a weekend-long wintertime campout to experience the living conditions that many veterans endure year-round.

According to Brian “Wicc” Pfund, an event organizer with the U.S. Military Vets Motorcycle Club, the campout was organized to raise public awareness but evolved into an important occasion of unity and compassion.

“The biggest thing when we started this was getting the word out that there’s a homeless vet problem,” said Pfund, noting that about 250 homeless veterans live around Savannah. “That’s a high level, because we are a small city.”

VFW Post 660 maintains an ongoing program of collecting food, clothing, sleeping bags and more for distribution to Savannah’s homeless veterans. VFW members who participate in the campout frequently donate their tents to this initiative at the end of the weekend, along with money and other essentials.

Pearce Gilbert III, the commander of VFW Post 660, sees the campout as a meaningful way to foster fellowship within the veteran community.

“It’s another way that we try to show them that they’re not forgotten,” Gilbert said of homeless veterans, who are always welcome at VFW Post 660 if they need help. “This is a safe haven for them.”

Throughout the weekend, members of the public stopped by to drop off donations, filling an entire activity room with food and supplies by Saturday afternoon. Longhorn Steakhouse donated freshly prepared dishes, and many of them were packaged and delivered to homeless encampments around Savannah, according to event organizer Gail White.

Homeless veterans are invited to join the weekend campers, but less of them participated this year because of some successful programs to alleviate area homelessness, particularly the Tiny House Project, Pfund said.

“We lost some camping people, but we’ve got them in tiny houses, so that was good,” Pfund said.