This Saturday, Dec. 21, will mark the winter solstice for the Northern Hemisphere which means in Madison it will be both the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The date is also remembered annually across the United States as Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, a time when the nation reflects on the people who have lost their lives while experiencing homelessness.
Every year, more and more communities have joined the hundreds of cities that honor this day. In Madison, local faith communities and organizations will gather at 3 p.m. on Capitol Square in downtown Madison for the Longest Night Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service to remember those who died unhoused in 2024 in Dane County and beyond.
The event marks the 16th such event in Madison. 
“At a time of year when many of us reflect on our blessings, prepare to celebrate holidays with family and friends, we are also called to remember and offer support to our brothers and sisters who are struggling, who may be vulnerable, who are cold, and hungry and sick,” Just Dane said in a press release announcing the event. “This Memorial Service is an opportunity to ensure that every life is celebrated and remembered, that no one’s death among us goes unnoticed.”
The first event in Madison took place after the death of 38-year-old Dwayne Warren on the Capitol Square. Warren was experiencing homelessness and died of sepsis, a blood infection that could have been treated with a simple antibiotic prescription. His death prompted Madisonians who knew him to draw more awareness to the issue of homelessness in the community and nationwide.
“So we’ll gather at three o’clock on that corner of East Main, South Pinckney, and King Street where Dwayne Warren’s body was found many years ago in 2009,” Linda Ketcham, the longtime executive director of Just Dane, tells Madison365. “There will be a brief interfaith service of reflection and remembrance. We will read the names of folks we’ve lost, and I believe there will be about 29 people that we will be remembering. Agencies from around the county, advocates, clergy, friends, and attorneys all submit the names of folks who will be remembered. So we do our best to find out a little bit of information about them soo we can include that in the memorial book.
“The National Longest Night Coalition on Homelessness always asks us to forward our booklet to them because they are working on a national database of folks remembered at the services so that families who maybe lost track of people and are trying to find them might be able to learn something through that database,” Ketcham adds.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
The Longest Night Homeless Persons’ Memorial Service is an opportunity to remember, honor, celebrate and mourn the passing of those in our community who have died, many of whom would have no funeral or obituary otherwise.
“We do a search for obituaries for the names that we receive, and I would say maybe 20 percent of the names of folks that we get names of had some kind of obituary, and often it’s just a death notice and nothing else,” Ketcham says. “So this is our way of remembering, celebrating their life, grieving their passing.”
Nationally the event has been commemorated annually since 1990 and brings attention to the growing tragedy of homelessness across the country.
Participating in Saturday’s service will be representatives from First Congregational United Church of Christ, First United Methodist Church, Beth Israel Center, Unity of Madison, JustDane, and other faith community representatives and advocates working for housing for all.
“We’ll have the service and we will read the names, and then we’ll have a procession around the capital led by a horse-drawn hearse,” Ketcham says. “Folks can bring donations of gloves, hats, and long underwear. We’ll get them to the shelters, or they can drop them off ahead of time at First Congregational United Church of Christ on 1609 University Avenue, prior to the event. They will get anything collected there distributed to the shelters.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
A memorial booklet of those who passed away in 2024 unhoused will be provided.
“They are members of our community. They were the children of folks, parents, siblings, and grandchildren. So we just want to make sure that we remember and celebrate their lives,” Ketcham says.
