Meredith Holds Habitat Fundraising Effort

In recent years, Meredith College community members have volunteered to help people in Sri Lanka after the tsunami and in the Gulf Coast region of the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2007-08, Meredith students, faculty, staff and alumnae are turning their attention to those in need much closer to campus, through an effort to raise money to fund a Meredith-sponsored Habitat for Humanity home.

To fully fund a Habitat home, Meredith’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter will need to raise $75,000. A total of $30,000 must be raised before the groundbreaking.

A kick-off event for the effort was held Thursday, Oct. 4 in the courtyard behind Johnson Hall. The kick-off consisted of three parts: a 12-hour Box-a-thon, an 11-hour “Bricks for Bucks” fundraiser and a 6 p.m. ceremony.

Hayley McPhail,’08, Meredith’s Habitat for Humanity president, founded the chapter in 2006. She hopes that the College will complete the goal of funding a Habitat home before she graduates in May 2008.
Meredith Vice President for College Programs Jean Jackson said that much of the credit for the Habitat effort belongs to McPhail.

Jackson explained that Meredith College has been involved with Habitat for Humanity for 19 years, but last year McPhail formed Meredith’s first Habitat chapter, along with “the dream of fully funding a Habitat for Humanity home.”

Leading up to the kick-off ceremony, First Year Experience (FYE) classes painted “Bricks for Bucks” to raise money for the house. More than 200 FYE students spent one hour each decorating bricks that were sold to benefit the Habitat effort. Each decorated brick, which can be used as doorstops, cost $10.
Other student groups participated in a Box-a-thon, in which student groups “lived” in a box for 12 hours (from noon-midnight) to raise awareness about homelessness and to raise money for the Habitat House effort. Each club was challenged to raise $100 for the Habitat home.

Organizations that participated in the Box-a-thon included the Meredith Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Meredith Entertainment Association, the Student Social Work Association, the Meredith Recreation Association, and Meredith Association for Families and Children.

“With wonderful creativity, strength, compassion and concern…we who have so much can give back,” Jackson said.

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Meredith’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity aims to raise $75,000 to fund the construction of a Habitat for Humanity home.

One of the group’s fundraising methods has been to sell Meredith birdhouses. Meredith’s Habitat club members, as well as other student volunteers, have built the houses.

There are two designs available, and each sells for $25.

For more information, contact Habitat chapter president Hayley McPhail at mcphailh@meredith.edu or email mchabitat@meredith.edu.