This semester, Georgia College’s very own marketing professor, Dr. Janna Parker, is stepping up to the task of involving a select few of her classes to put on 3 events to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Dr. Parker believes that her students will benefit from the task of using their marketing skills to put on these events.
Habitat for Humanity was originally founded in our beloved state of Georgia, but now has expanded to many areas of the world. Their mission is that everyone should have decent housing. Habitat for Humanity does not believe they should simply give away decent housing for free. They do, however, believe in helping people, in the building or outdoor renovation process, who might not otherwise be able to afford renovations, etc. Volunteers go and help with things from as little as building a wheelchair accessible ramp into the house, or rebuilding a porch that’s unstable, or as much as building an entire house. These volunteers as for what they term “sweat equity,” which is just the labor the residents need to be willing to put into the construction of the house. Habitat for Humanity also give the residents a low cost, interest-free mortgage to help them afford to live in a decent house.
Dr. Parker really liked the idea of Habitat for Humanity asking the residents to help with the building as well as paying for their own mortgage, rather than giving away free housing. She is a new member of the board of directors and Dr. Parker wanted to help by bringing new marketing ideas to the charity. She also knows Georgia College has a mission of experiential learning and they promote giving back to the community, so she decided this was a good fit for her class to be involved with.
One of her marketing ideas involved using GCSU’s students to raise awareness not only with the students, but also with the community. Not only will the students gain experience with marketing the event, but they also learn what it takes to create the activities for the event, how to coordinate with venues for a location, how to gain approval from the Habitat for Humanity board for things they want to do at the event while still keeping the reputation of Habitat for Humanity clean, and are able to practice designing flyers and radio ads. The experience will be one for the resumes once its completed.
Dr. Parker has three classes putting on three separate events. The first event will be in October and the theme is Oktoberfest. With this event, Dr. Parker hopes to raise awareness for Habitat for Humanity as well as raise money for the second event. The second event will be during the Christmas holiday and is called the Christmas Cottage. This event is geared towards children within the families Habitat for Humanity helps. Habitat for Humanity will be creating a mini store for children to go into and buy gifts for their parents as cheap as a nickel, while teaching them how to trade money to get items they want. The third event is named Restore and it is literally a store where people donate household items such as furniture or refrigerators or windows that are still in good condition. Restore then sells these items to people who are building a new house and need these things to furnish it. The marketing students for this last event are going to look at pricing and things in retail and learn how to price things for their target market and gain some experience in retail.
Dr. Parker hopes these events will lead GCSU’s campus in the right direction to building awareness and starting our own campus chapter for Habitat for Humanity! She hopes our involvement will spur the community to be more involved in this great cause, gaining more participation at events such as Oktoberfest, raise community support and money in the form of donations, as well as gain more involvement in all Habitat for Humanity projects, helping to better our community.
Think Milledgeville needs an upgrade and you’re just the person to help? Call (478) 453-9617 or visit their website http://www.milledgevillehabitat.org/ for more information. There’s no such thing as too many volunteers!