As mentioned before, I went on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Picayune, MS in November to work with the Pearl River Affiliate of H4H. I went with a professor in the business school as well as 45 of my peers. As part of the class project for this trip, we returned to Villanova and raised funds to be able to donate to Picayune to complete a Blitz Build next semester on the trip.
A Blitz Build is consists of building an entire house from foundation, to completion, both inside and out in 48 hours. Although required to meet the 48 hour limit to qualify as a Blitz Build, we are hoping to complete the project in under 36 hours! This requires the volunteers to take shifts working and sleeping, and will likely be a tiring but rewarding experience.
To raise money on campus, we held a t-shirt sale and a raffle on campus for a signed Kerry Kittles basketball. In addition, we sold some of the replica Churches and Business Schools to faculty, and solicited donations from a letter writing campaign to alumni, friends and family. Finally, graciously donated were two separate rounds of gold to be auctioned off in the VClub Auction at our university to partially benefit athletes wishing to attend the trip. All of these combined efforts yielded a total amount of around $4500.
Because so much is done in a small period of time during a Blitz Build, the funding required for such an event is substantial. Therefore, our group decided to donate the majority of our funds to the Pearl River County Affiliate in order to hopefully participate in the Blitz Build.
In this class project, we were able to use our business knowledge to be able to raise funds for a great cause- much of what I believe we’re about here at VSB.
P.S. – T-shirts are still available to purchase- feel free to let me know if you’d like one!
