Habitat for Humanity enlists student groups to build, live in shacks
Brian Spendley stands next to scraps of donated wood. By the end of today, these fragments will be transformed into 12 small shacks that will line the Quad.
Habitat for Humanity’s Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry chapter will host its first Shack-A-Thon event this week. Student groups will construct and then live in their own wooden shacks for the next three days and two nights.
Each one will be built by a different organization. Alpha Epsilon Pi, OrangeSeeds and University Union are three of the groups participating in the event. Spendley, president of the SU/ESF Habitat for Humanity chapter, said Shack-A-Thon attempts to raise awareness of homelessness and poverty both in the local Syracuse area and worldwide.
The project begins today at noon and will end Friday at 5 p.m. There will be students in the shacks at all times, alternating in shifts, handing out flyers with facts about homelessness in Onondaga County, Spendley said. The event will also include a photo exhibit in Hendricks Chapel featuring 26 poster-size images from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Shack-A-Thon concludes Friday afternoon with a press conference with speakers including assemblywoman Joan Christensen and Marilyn Higgins, vice president for community engagement and economic impact at SU. After the press conference, students will march around the Quad holding signs with facts about homelessness in an advocacy rally.
At the end of the week, all of the shacks will be painted and donated to families in need of shelter, said Tefan Drayton, Habitat’s spring break coordinator.
‘I hope this is something that can be done every year,’ Drayton said. ‘It’s a positive thing, not just for Syracuse University students, but for the city of Syracuse as well.’
Since Spendley has been president, he and the other club leaders have raised more than $30,000 toward the construction of a house at 619 Tully St.
Each club participating in the Shack-A-Thon is asked to raise $1,000. Spendley said he hopes to raise another $12,000 this week.
‘The Shack-A-Thon stands for something,’ Spendley said. ‘It will make people aware of what is going on around them.’
