Sleepless in Seattle is, for some, associated with a romantic comedy.

For the 3,100 homeless people in King County, it’s a nightly reality, and soon, temperatures will drop into the 20s or 30s.

After hearing this statistic, recent graduates and students at the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University and Bellevue College started a project called “Sleepless in Seattle” to provide homeless individuals with warm sleeping bags to help get them through the winter.

The campaign hopes to raise $75,000 through Indiegogo by Thanksgiving. So far, it’s at $19,753, 26 percent of the goal.

Daniel Shen, a 17-year old UW student and Mercer Island resident, said he got involved in the project through his church.

“I heard about the problem and the project at the same time,” Shen said. “Those of us who may be better off have an obligation to take care of those who are worse off.”

Shen said that his first experience interacting with a homeless person came during a service learning project, and that he got to know homeless individuals beyond “people standing there with a cardboard sign.”

“The story deepens for me when I learn that the homeless aren’t just the ones I see at the intersection, but also youth my age,” he said.

Sleepless in Seattle is a great Thanksgiving cause, he said.

“Being a student, I’m contributing my time to this project, but since I can’t actually donate funds to the campaign, I figured I could do my part by getting the word out so our city can hear and act on this opportunity to join in on helping the homeless this holiday season,” Shen said.

The Sleepless in Seattle team reached out to over a dozen local non-profits to help with the project. One estimated that 80 percent of the homeless on the streets do not have access to sleeping bags.

Collected funds from the crowdsourcing campaign will be used to purchase sleeping bags in bulk from online wholesale distributors. Gently used sleeping bags can also be donated.

Sleeping bags will be distributed through the non-profits and a “Big Give” distribution at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, hosted by Serve Seattle. About 30 experienced staff will train volunteers on interacting with the homeless before sending them out across the county to distribute bags.

More information can be found at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sleepless-in-seattle-seattle-gives-back.

To view the group’s YouTube video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41itNIM69Ps or search “Sleepless in Seattle – Seattle Gives Back.”