Findlay, Ohio – This week, UF students will rally together advocating
for people in need of decent shelter during UF’s Act! Speak! Build!
Week” 2006, April 3-9.
Throughout the week, members of UF’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter are
volunteering at CHOPIN Hall, Salvation Army, the Free Community Dinner
and UF's International Night.
Beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 8, students, faculty and staff
will
construct “homes” out of cardboard on the front lawn of Old Main.
The participants will spend the night in their boxes to help raise
awareness for what it is like to live in poverty.
In conjunction with UF Habitat’s Box City, Campus Compact will hold its
annual fundraiser for the Findlay/Hancock County Habitat for Humanity
affiliate. This year, 19 UF faculty and staff members will
collect donations for Habitat, and will either match a portion of those
donations, or agree to spend the night at the Box City event.
“Habitat has definitely been a life changing experience for me. I want
everyone to become aware of the problem that Habitat is trying to
eliminate; poverty and homelessness,” said Megan Shelton, sophomore
pre-physical therapy major and president of UF Habitat chapter.
The UF students are part of a larger effort nationwide. Across the
country, more than 250 youth groups are participating during the week
of advocacy with political-action days, “shack-a-thons,” housing
symposiums and candlelight vigils. Outside of the United States,
advocacy events will be held in countries including Armenia, Guyana,
Bolivia, Hong Kong, Sierra Leone, Korea and Nigeria.
For more information, contact Crystal Jones, AmeriCorps VISTA service
leader Campus Compact, Center for Service and Learning, at 419-
434-6671 or
cjones@findlay.edu.
