Building awareness

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By Yan Wang

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While UK fans were camping around Memorial Coliseum for Big Blue Madness, students from different organizations gathered outside of the Singletary Center on Friday to participate in a fort-building competition.

The second annual fort-building competition set student groups against each other in a 90-minute challenge to set up the best blanket fort. The competition was sponsored by Wrap Up America, a national organization that aims to raise awareness of poverty by donating blankets to charity.

The students erected towers, tents and shelters with PVC pipes and covered them with colorful blankets. Students from the Pi Beta Phi sorority won for their construction.

The event raised awareness for homelessness and donated 615 blankets used to create the forts to the Lexington Hope Center after the event, said chemical engineering junior and event chair Will Tompkins. The Hope Center provides services like recovery programs for men and women, mental health programs, social services, as well as employment and permanent housing programs, according to the organization’s website.

“Each blanket that we have here is going to impact somebody at the Hope Center in a positive meaningful way,” Tompkins said.

Trevor Joelson, president of Wrap Up America, said most of the blankets used in the competition were purchased from Walgreens at less than cost. He encouraged students to bring their own blankets for donation.

“These blankets, for me, are not as meaningful as the blankets someone brings from home,” Joelson said. “What we really want is someone who has a blanket lying around in their basement or their closet … and is willing to donate because they know someone needs them more than that.”

Carey Cairo, development coordinator of the Hope Center, said the organization provides services to about 800 people every night.

The blankets donated will help the homeless people in the Hope Center get through the cold winter, Cairo said.

“It’s a fantastic donation,” Cairo said. “If this winter is anything like last winter, we will definitely need blankets and (cold) weather supplies.”

Erin Klamic, a natural resources and environmental science junior in Pi Beta Phi, said the activity was a good way to raise awareness and bring people together.

“It’s a really good cause,” Klamic said. “Obviously, the homeless problem in Lexington is really big. Also, the whole UK community comes together to do something. So we obviously want to have our organization involved.”