Over the past few days, students walking through the Brickyard may have noticed that a miniature city of wooden shacks has popped up, each boasting their own unique design. This, combined with the cooling temperatures and falling acorns of autumn, can only mean one thing: Shack-A-Thon has returned.

This year marks the 20th time the Shack-A-Thon fundraiser has been held at NC State, with this year’s bringing about a new selection of organizations who are camping out in their respective shacks over the five-day run of the event.

Nick Stadler, a fourth-year studying mechanical engineering and the works project officer for NC State’s branch of Habitat for Humanity, helped to design his group’s shack for the event.

“In general, it’s a whole lot of fun,” Stadler said. “All of these shacks are out here raising money for Habitat for Humanity, and the ultimate goal is to fund a Habitat house.”

Each Shack-A-Thon is planned beforehand in collaboration with Wake County’s branch of Habitat for Humanity, and all proceeds from the event go towards funding a new Habitat house, with this year’s goal set at $65,000.

“There’s a lot of coordination and a lot of communication between our campus chapter of [Habitat for Humanity] and the county affiliate,” Stadler said. “I know they helped get the wood for our shack and the other shacks. They do a lot of the marketing and advertising, especially on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and all of that. A lot of it is trying to get the word out and get it organized.”

Morgan Faircloth, a fourth-year studying agricultural education and a member of the agriculture based sorority Sigma Alpha, spoke about the process of building her sorority’s shack.

“You’d bring all of your lumber out and kind of just had to figure out how you want to build your shack,” Faircloth said. “You always have a general idea of what you want to do, but once you start putting it together, you just have to figure it out.”

Each shack hosts its own miniature fundraiser, ranging from raffles to small shops selling baked goods and more.

“We’re holding a raffle to see who is going to get to name this little calf we have here, and the tickets are just one dollar each,” Faircloth said. “We’re also raffling off t-shirts, Koozies and other stuff for five dollars a ticket.”

Between the fundraisers and other activities, a small community forms amongst the shacks throughout the duration of the event, as mentioned by Stadler.

“I think my favorite part of Shack-A-Thon would have to be the community,” Stadler said. “We’re all out here in our shacks all day, and we’re hanging out and getting to know one another. You get to meet people you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, like people in fraternities, people in sororities and people in different scholarly organizations and majors.”

Though the main goal of the event is to raise money for the Habitat house, Stadler also hopes that the event can raise awareness and support for affordable housing.

“Besides raising money for the Wake County Habitat house, one of the biggest, overarching goals of Shack-A-Thon is to raise awareness about affordable housing,” Stadler said. “I don’t think that many people realize that here in Wake County, I think we have around 91,000 families that don’t have affordable housing, so our goal is to raise awareness and make sure people know that it isn’t something that just happens in third world countries.”

This year’s Shack-A-Thon runs until Friday, Sept. 28, so make sure to stop by some of the shacks before they disappear from the brickyard for another year.