West Texas A&M University’s Give-A-Goat/Shack-A-Thon 7.0 will take place on Wednesday, April 15, on the east side of Old Main beginning at 8 a.m. Shack-A-Thon was established in 2008 by the Buffs for Christ student ministry as an effort to raise money in hopes of building an AIDS clinic in Africa. In 2009, the WT Alliance started Give-A-Goat to raise money to purchase and deliver goats in Africa.
“We call this Give-A-Goat/Shack-A-Thon 7.0 this year because it is technically the seventh year we have done it with the Give-A-Goat process,” Kent Mereness, Director of Buffs for Christ, said.
The WT Alliance is composed of the five student ministries, the Buffs for Christ, Baptist Student Ministries, Catholic Student Center, NAVS and the Wesley. A “shack staff” is made up of students from each ministry and meets regularly, beginning 10 months before the event, to start planning and gathering supplies for the event.
“It’s fun to work with people from the other campus ministries and get to make friends with them on the shack staff and brainstorm to come up with cool ideas,” Tanner Moore, shack staff member, said.
The materials are brought to campus the day before the event.
“Then you have Shack-A-Thon, where students come out and build the shacks,” Mereness said, “then they stay in them over night.”
There are between 20 and 30 organizations that are involved in Shack-A-Thon, with 30-40 shacks built. About 400 people participate in the event, with half of those staying overnight.
“I enjoy the experience, and I like that a lot of students come out to support the cause and all hang out together,” Garrett Breaux, junior Music Education major, said.
The funds raised are given to the Christian Relief Fund, who buys the goats and delivers them to the Kenyan region of Turkana. The goats are purchased at auctions for $50 and are used for meat, milk and to reproduce.
Anyone from WT is invited to participate. More information is available at www.wtgiveagoat.com. Sign-ups for Give-A-Goat / Shack-A-Thon will take place in the JBK Commons beginning two weeks before the event.
“It’s my favorite thing to do,” Moore said. “It brings everyone together.”
