Through fair and foul weather, student organizations constructed 19 shacks in the Brickyard in NC State’s 21st Shack-A-Thon which ran from Sept. 24-28. This year, the goal of Shack-A-Thon is to raise $65,000 to build a Habitat for Humanity home in Wake County, and so far $40,000 has been raised.
The event also serves to inform otherwise unaware students of issues with affordable housing in the local community.
“A lot of students… either haven’t heard of Habitat for Humanity before or don’t know of the need in our community,” said Tyler Bendl, a fourth-year studying biomedical engineering and co-director of Shack-A-Thon. “They walk by Shack-A-Thon and have no idea what’s going on. We are quick to give them information about the need — there’s over 91,000 families in Wake County alone in need of affordable housing.”
Different organizations and colleges within NC State chose creative methods to raise money for the initiative, and to bring awareness to the subject of housing in the local community.
“The Raleigh area is growing at an astounding rate,” said Stephanie Jeffries, director of the Environmental First Year Program. Jeffries ran a shack for the College of Natural Resources where students paid three dollars to pie a professor. “That’s good for the community but we’ve had a real loss of affordable housing… they’re moving further and further out of the city; there’s a lot of problems with affordable housing here in a fast-growing area.
There were fewer shacks in the Brickyard this year compared to in the past. While some people might have interpreted the change as a lack of engagement from the student body, the adjustment was actually made to make the event more efficient.
“We do have two less shacks this year; some of the shacks consolidated,” Bendl said. “We were hoping that, through some of the consolidation, they were able to spend more of their time on their fundraising efforts.”
The new directors of Shack-A-Thon are also looking for ways to expand and improve the event in upcoming years. One improvement Bendl is already eyeing for the near future is expanding into Centennial Campus.
“[Improving Shack-A-Thon is] a constant process,” Bendl said. “We usually take a few weeks after the event to debrief and kind of run through everything that we can improve upon. We sit down with Habitat Wake and say ‘what can we do better; how can we draw more clubs; how can we get better news coverage?’”
However, Bendl is currently focused on this year’s Shack-A-Thon reaching its goal of raising enough money to build a Habitat for Humanity home. As of Sunday, Sept. 30, approximately $40,000 has been raised. Though the shacks have come down in the Brickyard, online donations will stay open for an additional two weeks. $65,000 is the ultimate goal, but Bendl hopes first to reach the event’s initial challenge gift.
“We have two challenge gifts,” Bendl said. “One is if we hit $50,000, two NC State alumni will donate a total of $5,000 to push us to $55,000. Once we hit $60,000, NC State athletics has agreed to donate another $5,000 and get us to our [ultimate] goal.”
Shack-A-Thon’s organizers said that more than anything, they hope to have made an impact on the student body and the community at large by being ambassadors and bringing awareness to the issues in accessible housing in North Carolina.
“I would definitely call it a success so far,” Bendl said. “Regardless of if we hit our goal, I’m still pleased with the amount of coverage and how we’ve been able to advocate for the need of affordable housing.”
Students who wish to donate to Shack-A-Thon’s efforts can give here.
