Greeks raise money for Habitat project

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) and the Pan-Hellenic Council have teamed up to raise money for a Habitat for Humanities project.

"We raised $11,000 from the Greek members. In two weeks we got a response from all the chapters wanting to help. We averaged the numbers and we got about five dollars per person," said Jonathan Sangster, the IFC secretary.

Though the Greek community has raised a $11,000, they still have to acquire seven times what they already have for the project by August. "$75,000 is due Aug. 9. We know the money will come," Sangster said.

The project is designed to be a collaborative effort that builds on past projects and sets the foundation for future endeavors. "The project began as a capital campaign and as a student life initiative," said Mike Moreland, the IFC president.

"These service projects started with Tech Beautification Day and then the E-waste project, as well as other projects, coming to a peak with the Habitat project," Sangster said.

According to Sangster, once the IFC got the information from Habitat for Humanity, they started soliciting donations from Greek organizations. "Greek donations signaled the go ahead for this project," Sangster said.

IFC and Pan-Hellenic are now looking for outside donations to fill the void that still remains in funding.

"In the next steps we will be filling out a lot of forms, such as sponsorship forms. We are requesting different levels of sponsorship," Sangster said.

According to Sangster, they are soliciting from companies, corporations, sponsorships and individuals.

"We are looking for leaders with big high-end donations. We have focuses on high-level sponsorship as well as door-to-door support," Sangster said.

"We realized that we could start now and it would be easier to fundraise in the future if we laid the groundwork now before the large scale community endowment," Moreland said.

According to Sangster, a tier system has been created where depending on the amount of money donated, a person can receive various levels of recognition.

"We want donors to feel good about donating and give them a stake in the project. We definitely want to include them in the project as a partner," Sangster said.

"We will include them at all steps and try to bring them into the project," Moreland said.

The fundraising will not end when the $75,000 is reached, however.

"We plan to continue fundraising throughout the fall. There is an extra $25,000 we have to raise to cover associative costs," Moreland said.

The actual building of the house will take place during the fall, as well.

"September 2nd will be the ground-breaking for the project, which is the football season opener. We are trying to tie in that excitement to the project. Building will begin the next weekend. Hopefully we will be finished by homecoming," Moreland said.

"The work will only be on Saturdays and will take place over seven Saturdays," Sangster said.

The site will be just off west campus.

"The site will be on English Avenue which is five minutes from campus," Sangster said.

The project is open to everyone in the Tech community, not just Greeks.

"We are still in a spread-the-word phase. Students will start seeing fliers around campus. Anyone who wants a stake can do anything for the project," Sangster said.

"It's more about being inclusive with the entire campus," Moreland said.

"It will be an extremely successful event that everyone should try to be a part of," said Alison Graab, Undergraduate President.

"We are trying to achieve unity and community on Tech and in Atlanta. We want to get the community to take a stake in the project. It requires a lot of collaboration from the campus and the community. We will be bringing everyone together to prepare for the execution of the project," Sangster said.

According to Sangster, people will be able to see this project from start to finish.

Not only will the project be a Greek led event, but a new student organization will be formed during the project.

"In conjunction with the project, we are launching the Habitat Chapter on campus. They have reps on the committee to help get chartered on campus. Hopefully this will create staying power and a sustainable organization," Moreland said.

"Habitat students looking to re-charter their organization on campus can use this project as an opportunity," Sangster said.

According to Moreland and Sangster, Habitat Atlanta has been instrumental in the formation of the project.

"Habitat Atlanta has been incredibly helpful. They facilitated the whole way. They made exceptions to allow us to do this. We owe them a debt of gratitude," said Moreland.

"It's rare that someone goes to Habitat and want to provide the funding and all the work," Sangster said.

"There will be a mutual gain with Habitat. They're getting exposure and a house built," Moreland said.

The plan, according to Moreland and Sangster, is to not have the project be an isolated event, but an ongoing theme.

"Hopefully the momentum from this project will make it easier to make this an annual thing," Sangster said.

"We weigh each project at the beginning of the year to see how they will be received. We want professional and sustainable projects. The fact that we've invested so much is a testament to how Pan-Hellenic and IFC have come," Moreland said.

"This project has gotten us exciting about our capabilities. We've been lucky," Sangster said.

"The project is ambitious, but ambitious projects are the ones worth taking on," Graab said.