A sea of tents and tarps in Dewey Square is serving as a temporary home for protesters for the Occupy Boston movement, who have made the Financial District the headquarters for their demonstrations.
In a just more than a week, Occupy Boston protesters have set up fully stocked logistic and medical tents, a food tent, a media tent complete with power and Internet access, a legal tent, a sign-making tent and an inter-faith religious tent. Demonstrators also set up dozens of residential tents along cardboard covered pathways.
Zack Osheroff, a graduate student at Simmons College, said he got involved with Occupy Boston after some of his fellow classmates helped organize the medical tent.
“I thought it was a great way to give back something,” he said. “I figured this is the skill that I am learning. I can practice it. I can help people. I can participate in something, which I think is really important, which is providing healthcare to everyone here.”
Tyler Lambert-Perkins, a graduate student at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts who worked at the logistics tent, said that anyone looking to get involved working one of the tents can do it rather quickly.
“There’s a few people who have been heading up the movement since the beginning, but for the most part if you just jump right in it, you’re going to get the hang of it,” Lambert-Perkins said.
Since the community was formed, it has been running off donations of food, medical supplies, tents, tarps, blankets and even electrical power, said Occupy Boston protester Rene, who asked to keep his last name anonymous.
“The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy have actually worked with us a lot,” Rene said. “They seem to support us in some capacity, so much so, that they open the box to give us electricity. There was a lock on it and they lost the key, so they came with bolt cutters and bolted off the lock for us.”
Rene, who was between residencies when the protest began, said he believes Occupy Boston is working on a kind of system where people can offer their showers.When talking about weather conditions, he said that before they deal with winter, the protestors are first trying to solve their biggest issue – space for their swelling ranks.
“We’ve dealt with that by using larger tents and by keeping a list of all the available spaces we have every night,” Rene said. “Usually we have space for everyone, but it definitely gets full.”
Rene, who said he had only gotten four hours of sleep during the first three days of the protest due to his work organizing the logistics tent, summed up how the group of protesters continues to thrive.
“Oh, we just do,” Rene said.
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