Lauren Kruchten
Several students from 23 organizations on campus hunker down in manmade shacks for NC State's yearly tradition of Shack-A-Thon Sept. 22. This year Shack-A-Thon has a goal of raising $65,000 for Habitat for Humanity in order to construct a Habitat home. The shacks raise money by selling baked goods, raffle tickets, student-made products, and a variety of other things.
The 24th annual Shack-A-Thon brought NC State students together and raised more than $35,000 for Habitat for Humanity to help those in need of adequate housing.
“At this point, we’ve raised just over $35,000,” said Sarah Paluskiewicz, a senior studying polymer color chemistry and the president of the NC State’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity. “For Habitat of Wake County, $65,000 is enough money to sponsor one home.”
This year, more than 20 shacks were built in the Brickyard that had to be occupied by the members of each team at all times for a duration of five days. Students from the numerous organizations worked to raise money for the cause while having fun with their friends.
Swathi Krothapalli, a sophomore studying international studies and business, said manning the shack was a great bonding experience for the members of Alpha Phi Omega.
“It was never really empty when I was here,” Krothapalli said. “Everyone just kind of chilled together, and it was really fun.”
Bad weather held off for most of the week until Thursday evening when it started and continued to rain through Friday, the last day of the event. Students who were usually gathered around outside of the shacks tested the strength of their structure as they huddled inside and tried to stay dry and warm. Because of a night of heavy rain at last year’s event that caused Shack-A-Thon to temporarily shut down, one of the requirements this year was that the groups brought a tarp to cover their roofs so that they are well equipped for the rainy conditions. Thanks to this requirement, Shack-A-Thon was able to stay up and running despite the rainy weather.
Another change made this year was that for the first time, participants were allowed to use paint to decorate the outside of their shacks.
“Walking around the shacks this year and seeing all of the creative designs just shows the creativity of all the students and has definitely made it a lot more visually appealing,” Cornwell said.
Students of Global Colors painted a picture of a world map on the outside of their shack and, as their fundraiser, asked students to put a thumbprint on their hometowns to show where NC State students were from.
Additional creative fundraisers included a pie-in-the-face contest hosted by the Parks Scholarship Shack and the Pi Beta Phi shack, where students could pet and play with a kitten if they donated. Other organizations had fundraisers such as bake sales, live music and corn hole games.
The shack that usually stands out from the rest each year, constructed by the College of Natural Resources, switched from the log cabin theme to being made entirely out of bamboo. Deanna Metivier, a senior studying natural resources, said that Shack-A-Thon is an important event for the college.
“A lot of people don’t know about the College of Natural Resources, and so we took this as a great opportunity to get our name out there and to unite the college,” she said.
The College of Natural Resources used that same approach in its fundraising by selling pieces that students, alumni and faculty created and contributed such as drawings, design cut-outs and bamboo pencil cups.
“Many students want to get involved, but they don’t know how, so giving them this opportunity and uniting the college for this awesome cause was definitely one of our main goals,” Metivier said.
Jackson Marley, a junior studying sustainable materials and technology, thought his experience also gave him a great perspective on what people who live in inadequate housing go through every day.
“It’s fun to do it for a few days, kind of like camping with friends,” Marley said. “But then it makes you think about people who actually live in housing like this and how we can afford to do a lot more for those people.”
In part because of the efforts of this event, there is something being done to help those who are in need.
“The amount of work that is associated with a fundraiser like this is incredible, but it keeps getting bigger,” Paluskiewicz said. “I think Shack-A-Thon crosses a line where it takes a whole student organization, or more, depending on each other to pull it off. That’s special.”