Do you want to paint a snowman (on a shack) to raise money for Africa?

Kent Mereness, campus ministry director for the University Church of Christ in Canyon, Texas, and other volunteers show off a couple of goats during Shack-A-Thon. (PHOTO PROVIDED)

The Amarillo Globe-News reports:

The sound of hammers, nails and spray paint filled the lawn east of Old Main on Wednesday at West Texas A&M University as students constructed makeshift shacks out of cardboard and wooden pallets during the campus’ sixth annual Shack-A-Thon.

Hosted by the WT Campus Ministers Alliance, the event raises awareness of poverty, as well as money for Give-A-Goat, which buys goats for people coping with drought and famine in the Turkana region of Kenya.

…

Students began building their shacks at 8 a.m. and slept in them overnight to gain an understanding of poverty. Use of electricity, stakes in the ground or heating devices are against the rules of the event.

“We hope students have to think through, ‘What would it be like if I had to live in something like that? What would it be like if I had to endure the elements?,’” said Buffs for Christ director Kent Mereness.

“Maybe it will let them have a little sympathy and have a giving heart to people who are in need in this way.”

In its first five years, the event has raised $80,000 for Give-A-Goat, said Mereness. This year, it has raised about $12,000 so far, he said, to donate animals to people in a part of the world where childhood malnutrition is on the rise.

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West Texas A&M University students show off their shack. (PHOTO BY MOLLIE BRYANT, AMARILLO GLOBE-NEWS)

Buffs for Christ is a ministry of the University Church of Christ in Canyon, Texas. The goats for the West Texas Give-A-Goat initiative are provided by the Christian Relief Fund, an Amarillo, Texas-based nonprofit supported by members of Churches of Christ. Christian Relief Fund also works with a Give-A-Goat program in the Philippines, part of the nonprofit Shepherd’s Hill International.