BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Alabama Rural Ministry is hosting its annual No More Shacks fundraiser from now through Nov 2.
ARM will host different events and attractions from Tuesday to Saturday for local students and residents to learn more and donate, and will close the week with a Smash the Kats and Destroy a Van to Support event on Nov. 1 where gameday goers can participate and support the ministry as they walk by.
Throughout the week ARM Founder and Director, Lisa Pierce, will sleep in a constructed shack to raise awareness for a reality that many locals face but outsiders rarely see.
“I’ll sleep in [the shack] during the nighttime hours, but during the daytime, I will be sitting outside with others, and that’s when people can come visit,” she said. “Our website lists home repair opportunities — we actually have a service day on Nov. 8, Martin Luther King weekend, so that’s how they can plug in. But we’ll be in front of the Auburn Wesley Foundation — that’s 131 South Gay St., across from Publix.”
Pierce said the response to the fundraiser is positive and the placement of the shack in downtown Auburn attracts passers to ask questions and make donations.
“Lots of people will stop by, ask questions — drop money off in our donation box,” she said. “We’ll have some after-school programs [for children] to come and paint, and we get to tell them the story. Then usually we’ll have some new people sign up who want to volunteer and plug in. So the fundraiser itself, last year, [we needed] about $100,000 — I think we raised close to $90,000 when it was said and done. So the fundraiser itself is fairly successful too —we see that outpouring as well.”
Pierce said No More Shacks has three purposes: to raise money, to attract volunteers and to educate the community. Through living in the shack for a week, Pierce said people can better understand how weather and other factors impact people who are living in homes in need of repair.
“The shack is big enough for a twin mattress and a little bit of space, but it’s really the size of a twin mattress,” she said. “So during the day, I’m sitting outside. At night, when it’s time to go to sleep, I’ll go inside. I do have a light inside. My shack does lock, but I’ll sleep in there through the weather. And if you know anything about downtown Auburn, on a home football game weekend, it’s pretty loud, pretty crazy, with all the foot traffic and the noise — but I think what it does is — right now the temperatures are getting a little bit cooler, so I’ll become a personification of people that people don’t see.”
Pierce said ARM began repairing homes in the East Alabama area in 2001 and has since repaired more than 450 homes, with around 15 to 25 homes repaired a year. She said both the volunteers and those who receive renovations to their homes are positively impacted by the ministry.
“I think [the reason] we’ve stayed volunteer-based is because we want see that transformation in both those populations [volunteers and renovation recipients],” she said. “And so there’s something in us that’s restored when we get to go out and serve. The impact that it has on the volunteers is one of just feeling like you made a difference, feeling like even if you gave a Saturday or sometime in the summer, it was worth it. And then the exposure of, ‘Oh gosh, I didn’t know this was happening.’ It’s hard to tell — sometimes from the outside of a home, unless it’s got a tarp on or it’s obvious — it looks fine, but then you walk inside and you realize they’ve got these needs… [The homeowners] absolutely love having the volunteers come in because the volunteers just really come in with an attitude of caring. They come in wanting to hear stories. They wanted to come in to be a good neighbor.”
With another year of work to meet needs, Pierce said referrals and recommendations for those who have financial limitations and home repair needs are given to ARM to help determine and locate those who are in need, and that volunteers and donations are always appreciated.
“We call them neighbors who have financial limitations — either on a very fixed income or very low income — and have some kind of home repair need that, if they had it, it would make their home more safe and dry,” she said. “We hear a lot about leaking roofs, needs for wheelchair ramps and some handicap accessible type features — floors that might have holes in them, especially areas near water, like bathroom floors and kitchen floors where there’s water leaks. So those are the big ones.
“Summer has historically been our most impactful time, because that’s when we get the most church groups,” she said. “Especially here in the Auburn area around Auburn University and Tuskegee University, we’ve got a lot of students and churches that will go out on Saturdays to serve. Warm, safe and dry is a big piece of what we’re trying to do on the home repair side.”
For more information, visit www.arm-al.org.
