Habitat for Humanity, run by senior president Caroline Taylor, is proving to be a promising community service organization for the 2012-2013 school year.
Habitat for Humanity is not only an Elon University-offered service club—it is an international, nonprofit and nondenominational Christian housing ministry. Affiliates work locally in global communities to support homeowners, organize volunteers, and coordinate house building and repair.
Evan Small of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, will now be Habitat’s new adviser.
“He is going above and beyond the duties of his adviser role,” she said. “We are very fortunate and grateful to have the opportunity to work with him.”
Elon’s Habitat for Humanity holds weekly half-hour meetings on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in Lindner Hall 102. Important upcoming events, opportunities and fundraisers are discussed.
As one of the first events of the new school year, Habitat recently held a spaghetti dinner in the Elon Community Church Center, raising nearly $1600.00.
“I think our greatest success at Elon this year has been the Annual Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser,” Taylor said. “Lindsay Garrison, one of our Fundraiser Coordinators, was instrumental in planning. She put a lot of time and energy into contacting various organizations and groups to advertise the dinner.”
According to Taylor, Garrison contacted and coordinated more than 40 volunteers who staffed the event and made sure everything went smoothly.
Habitat for Humanity at Elon University does not only organize fundraisers benefiting housing, the group also works with many other groups to provide funds and service to different organizations.
Future events include the Stop Hunger Now event on Saturday, Oct. 20 from 9-11 a.m. in partnership with Campus Kitchen. “Shack-a-thon”, benefiting housing will be in the third week of November.
Habitat for Humanity has also began partnering with other organizations and groups on-and-off campus, including Campus Kitchen and the Barnes and Noble College Shops.
They have also created the “Build a Future Challenge” in partnership with Barnes and Noble to attempt to win $1,000 for Elon’s Habitat group. The Fan Page nationwide with the most points won the grant. To earn points, students had to like, comment, and share posts from the Elon University Bookstore’s Facebook page.
Although Washington College Habitat Chapter recently won the $1,000 grant, the support from Elon students proved unbelievable and improved greatly through the challenge. Currently, 1,259 students like the Facebook page in support of the challenge, among a couple hundred more who ‘liked’ or commented specific posts following the announcement.