Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners' 18th annual Sleep Out campaign will wrap up on New Year's Eve after several weeks of community participation aimed at raising about $2 million to help struggling families.

Since the campaign began Nov. 9, school and faith groups, community leaders and citizens of all ages have slept out in the cold to raise awareness about what the homeless experience, held cook-offs and collected donations that will go to help hundreds of needy families get on the road to stability in 2014, organizers said recently.

Jill Kohler, the group's director of development, thanked "this incredible community" of people who have participated.

The group, headquartered in Plymouth, provides a wide variety of assistance to the financially struggling in Hamel, Long Lake, Medicine Lake, Medina, Minnetonka, Orono, Plymouth and Wayzata. For more information, go to www.iocp.org.

PAMELA MILLER

@nightnewspam