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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Habitat for Humanity brings harmonies home

All five of SLU’s a cappella groups came together last Friday night to vocalize awareness about a SLU group trying to make a difference in the St. Louis community.

Astha A Capella, Beyond All Reason (BAR), Bare Naked Statues (BNS), Decadence and Six Eight helped SLU’s Habitat for Humanity chapter raise $1,200 by performing at the Harmonies for Habitat benefit concert that took place in the Center for Global Citizenship.

“This is one of our most successful fundraisers since we have no other fees and the a cappella groups are great enough to donate their time and skills to the cause,” said Emily Burghoff, president of SLU Habitat.

The money that the a cappella groups and SLU Habitat were able to raise from the concert will go directly to the St. Louis Habitat affiliate, which just marked its 25th anniversary as a Habitat affiliate and its 300th house built in St. Louis.

SLU Habitat raised over $20,000 for the local St. Louis affiliate last year. SLU students that participate in Habitat also get hands-on experience in building.

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“Our campus chapter actually goes to the houses being built on about six to seven Saturdays throughout each semester,” said Burghoff. “Although many of our club members have never built, many still take on the challenge and learn new building skills.”

SLU Habitat and the local affiliate are currently focused on building houses in University City, Carondelet and North City.

Although Habitat was the only club that benefited from the event financially, they were not the only group that gained something from the event. According to BAR President Cassie Molloy, by participating in the event her club gained the opportunity to give back by doing what they love.

“Being able to come together and share our passions for a good cause is something really special,” Molloy said. “We always hope that we can help draw more people to come out to these events, not just to see us perform, but to become aware of the work Habitat does, as well as a bunch of other charitable organizations at SLU.”

BAR was not the only group that found the fundraiser to be a worthwhile experience; the newest a cappella group at SLU, Six Eight, thought that their Christian identity paired well with Habitat’s goals.

“Each performance is a unique opportunity for our group, and it was an honor for us to be able to share our music with a group of people who are acting on the message we sing,” Six Eight member Theresa Schafer said.

The students that attended the concert were given another opportunity to contribute to Habitat’s cause during the performance as well.

As Decadence performed their final song, buckets were passed through the audience to collect donations. As an incentive, Habitat announced that if they were able to collect $50 during the last song, Decadence would perform an encore.

The audience ultimately donated $150 over the course of the group’s finale, and the students were treated to Decadence’s cover of an early 2000s radio hit “Stacy’s Mom,” made famous by Fountains of Wayne. Habitat found the event to be a great success, and intends to host another performance in the future.

“We will most definitely be doing this event again. We love working with other organizations on campus and love having the SLU community attend our events,” said Burghoff.

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