The ninth annual Cardboard City event, hosted by Athens County Habitat for Humanity, will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Morton Hall parking lot.
Cardboard City is a fundraising event that spreads awareness for substandard housing, a problem in the Athens area, said Sarah Vaughn, resource development director for Athens County Habitat for Humanity.
“People who work full-time minimum wage jobs in Athens have a hard time finding decent housing,” Vaughn said.
Cardboard City is an all-night event during which teams or individuals build structures out of cardboard and spend the night in their structure.
There is a required $25 donation to participate, with the donation fee going toward T-shirts and food and the remaining donations going to the organization, Vaughn said.
The goal this year is to raise enough money from Cardboard City alone to sponsor a Habitat house in Athens. Cardboard City would have to raise a total of $35,000 dollars in order to sponsor a Habitat house.
Habitat for Humanity starts preparing for the event in June by trying to contact potential participants and business sponsors, said Alex Smith, advocacy chair for Athens County Habitat for Humanity.
“There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into making the event. There is also a lot of dumpster diving for cardboard,” Smith said.
This year, more than 32 teams have registered to participate in the event, almost double the number of participants from last year, with Vaughn anticipating more than 400 participants.
Some residence halls, including Biddle Hall, the Johnson-Reed complex, and Crawford Hall, have decided to create teams to participate. The Ohio University women’s crew team and various fraternities and sororities on campus are getting involved as well.
“This year, we are really focused on getting people to come out and participate in the event,” Smith said.
Athens community members are also encouraged to get involved in Cardboard City, Vaughn said.
“This event is great because it gets younger kids, families, middle-school, high-school, and college students involved,” Vaughn added.
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