What is the Seminole Shack Showdown?

Every year FSU’s Habitat for Humanity chapter hosts Seminole Shack Showdown with different student organizations to build awareness about substandard housing. Seminole Shack Showdown is ran from Monday, March 21st until Thursday, March 24th.

During these four days, students created their own shacks and lived in them until Thursday in order to educate students around campus about this issue. Their shacks have acted as information hubs throughout the week to teach curious students about substandard housing. Decent, stable housing is not all about having four walls and a roof to go over your head, and stable housing should be a priority in every community.

Monday afternoon, the student organizations began to build their shacks, they were hard at work until 3 pm. They then relaxed after a hard day creating their shack they will live in for the rest of the week. When I arrived Monday afternoon, each organization was busy creating their wooden shacks by hand.

Each shack hosted entertainment to raise funds to eliminate poverty housing in Tallahassee. This event is unique because it brings together different student organizations to create a demonstration that is interactive for FSU students. Tuesday night there was an acoustic band session for those participating and attending the event. On Wednesday, there was a bake sale hosted by the Honors Student Association (HSA).

Laura Blank is the coordinator for this event and describes Seminole Shack Showdown as a “volunteer-based, cross student organization” event.

Seminole Shack Showdown is an event that brings together organizations.

The HSA is also supporting this event and created a shack to participate. I talked to Mae who is a freshman political science major who is doing Seminole Shack Showdown for the first time.

Mae describes her experience last night as “not very comfortable and it was cold, but you get to experience substandard housing firsthand,” which is what this event is hoping to show. She stayed overnight, and she felt that experiencing the overnight stay helped her understand the situation and the problem of substandard housing.

The event will hopefully bring awareness to this issue and demonstrate the realities of substandard housing.

Alpha Phi Omega, which is a co-ed service fraternity, is also participating in the event. I met with Rebecca, who is a junior criminology major, and has done Seminole Shack Showdown for the past three years.

Rebecca wants students to learn that “Habitat for Humanity is not just about going and building one house and that’s it. That one house only helps one family, and there are so many more families in need.”

The Alpha Phi Omega shack costed $200 to create, and that was not even including the $300 worth of donated material. It took a crew of people to transport the material and create their shack. Rebecca and another member of Alpha Phi Omega bring up they were lucky enough to have people who had trucks to transport the materials to build. There are many people who do not have reliable transportation.

These shacks are representations of real wooden shacks built for homeless families. However, Rebecca reveals that in reality, these shacks are not considered houses by the government and they are usually taken down, which leaves families without shelter.

Fay, another student involved in Alpha Phi Omega, is also passionate about the cause of substandard housing awareness. “Seminole Shack Showdown gives a fun, light environment to learn about a sad topic,” she says. It is important to have an interactive and fun environment to help promote awareness and participation.

This event is promoting awareness to a very relevant problem in our own communities and around the world. All of the volunteers are passionate and well informed about the issue, and it is great opportunity to meet them and learn about this issue.