Published: October 20, 2009 07:15 pm      

UCO puts on annual ‘Shack-a-Thon’

EDMOND — Cardboard boxes will become the University of Central Oklahoma’s newest on-campus housing as students brave the elements to raise poverty awareness at Central’s annual “Shack-a-thon,” Oct. 25-29, just one of a series of events that are a part of Poverty Awareness Week on campus.

Student teams will live in “shacks” surrounding Broncho Lake on campus, panhandling for change and working with limited resources, to give the campus community a glimpse at how the homeless population lives.

“Will our students actually be homeless for the week? No - they will have access to electricity and an extra police presence, plus they’ll be having fun on top of it all,” said Josh Krawczyk, director of Central’s Volunteer and Service Learning Center.

“However, what our students are signing up to do isn’t easy. They’ll be living on a cold sidewalk for a week in the unpredictable weather, and will definitely come away with a new awareness and appreciation for what many, many people face on a daily basis in the real world. At the end of the day, a row of 40 cardboard shacks by Broncho Lake is impossible to ignore, so awareness will ultimately be raised.”

Teams of five to 10 students will build their shacks from donated cardboard boxes from usedcardboardboxes.com, and tape and wood provided by the VSLC.

Each team is limited to spending $50 to purchase additional supplies to build their shack, but must provide a receipt to verify they did not exceed the spending limit.

Last year, Shack-a-Thon teams raised almost $2,500, mostly in change, through panhandling.

Proceeds raised will go toward awards service scholarships for students at Central.

Feed the Children, an international Christian non profit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, will be on campus at 11:30 a.m., Oct. 26 underneath the blue tent outside of Central’s Nigh University Center to educate the Central community about what FTC is doing to eliminate poverty and ways to help.

The “Fast for Poverty” event will kick off at noon on the same day, and will conclude at noon the following day, Oct. 27.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 27, local agencies and organizations that provide support for those affected by poverty will be on campus outside the Health and Environmental Science building across from the Nigh Center to raise poverty awareness by handing out helpful information and answering questions.

“Very often, students arrive on campus with only notions of severe poverty, homelessness and other social issues only in the abstract. In reality, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and other human service agencies work every day to combat these issues for citizens of Edmond and Oklahoma City,” Krawczyk said.

For more information, call Krawczyk at 974-2622 or e-mail jkrawczyk@uco.edu.