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By: Monica Harper
UI freshmen Amber Sondag and Taylor Paustian squeezed into a 2-by-3-foot cardboard box decorated with blue and yellow paint to raise money for the revived UI Habitat for Humanity chapter and demonstrate the struggle of being homeless.
The students were two of approximately 30 women on their Burge Residence Hall floor who pooled their money to purchase the $50 box, one of more than 15 “homes” erected in Hubbard Park on Tuesday.
“We thought it was something to do as a floor,” Sondag said, adding that she isn’t ashamed of having the smallest box.
“I’m proud of it; I love it.”
The event, which lasted from noon to midnight Tuesday, was the first UI Housing Challenge, raising more than $2,100 in donations and sales of the temporary houses, said junior Rebecca Tekippe, an officer for the group of 25.
Groups had options to buy different-sized cardboard boxes for $50, $75, or $100, which they adorned with paint, streamers, duct tape, and balloons.
The boxes became their homes for 12 hours – though many students took rotating shifts – during which participants could win raffle prizes, listen to bands, and snack on free burgers, chips, soda, and breadsticks.
The UI’s new Habitat for Humanity chapter, which is still in the process of gaining officially recognized status, is more than six months in the making, said UI junior Brandelle Slater, the chapter’s president.
A UI Habitat for Humanity chapter disbanded around 1999 because of a lack of leadership, said Betty Yung, an AmeriCorps member and volunteer coordinator for the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity affiliate.
The UI group will serve primarily marketing and volunteer-recruiting functions for a future building project Yung hopes will take place during this year’s Homecoming week.
The Iowa Valley affiliate purchases a vacant lot selects a family, and hires workers to perform more complicated construction tasks, Yung said.
“The goal is to have a complete student house that we raise the money for, manage, and is completely student-built [excluding contractors and electricians],” said Tess Feldman, the group’s media relations director.
Though she had worried about weather conditions and the long hours spent in the park, she said the group’s morale would surpass any hardships.
“The music’s going, the food’s hot off the grill – I don’t think we’ll have a problem,” she said.
