2005 Cardboard Village

UW-L students sleep in cardboard shelter to raise funds, awareness

By AUTUMN GROOMS / La Crosse Tribune

Members of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chapter of Habitat for Humanity built and lived in a cardboard village on campus Saturday and Sunday.

Students slept in cardboard boxes and lived outdoors for 24 hours to raise awareness of sub-standard housing and to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. But when the time ended, they had shelter and soft beds to go home to.

"We know we're not really being homeless because we stayed one night," said Erinn Bothwell, a UW-L sophomore and organization treasurer from St. Paul, Minn., as she and other members prepared to walk home with their sleeping bags Sunday morning.

"It really makes you think," added Karen Gadient, a UW-L sophomore from Mazeppa, Minn., as she, too, gathered her belongings.

"We spent 24 hours outside, but there are people who spend every day like that," she said.

Jordan Coffey, a sophomore from Hartford, Wis., said the 24-hour outdoor experience was something he couldn't imagine doing for the rest of his life or even for an extended period of time.

And the group wasn't exactly roughing it, he said, mentioning a pizza delivery at 2 a.m., followed by Krispy Kreme doughnuts at 9 a.m.

To stay warm overnight, the students piled in sleeping bags, fleece blankets and pillows, and tried to stay away from the drafty edges of the cardboard house they built.

UW-L sophomore Katie Besaw of Appleton, Wis., said it was determined early on that the middle of the box was the warmest place to be.

The cardboard village did inspire curious onlookers to ask questions and make donations, Gadient said. The organization received about $75 in donations Saturday, bringing its fund-raising total during the past two weeks to about $300, she said.

The money raised will be used for the Habitat house in La Crosse, Habitat for Humanity International and for the UW-L chapter of Habitat for Humanity's spring break trip to Charleston, S.C., where the students will help build houses.