Washington Junior High Junior Beta Club members are building two cities — one of cardboard on the lawn at Griffith Elementary and one of donated wood and nails to combat homelessness and poor housing in Daviess County.

With 15 Hours of Hope, Washington Junior High students have raised $15,000 for Habitat for Humanity of Daviess County in the past five years by taking pledges to spend the night in cardboard houses at Griffith. It takes $35,000 to $45,000 to build one Habitat house, according to Washington Junior High School Counselor Larry Mattes.

Last year, Beta students raised $4,187. This year, they are hoping to raise at least $5,000 by adding a concert and video game tournament to the event.

Through volunteer labor and donations, Habitat builds simple, decent housing for local families in need. The families pay for their houses through volunteering and a monthly mortgage payment which goes back into a fund to build more Habitat houses.

Beta students decide what projects they do, said Mattes, and 15 Hours of Hope was one way they could get involved with Habitat since they are too young to volunteer to work on the homes.

’We wanted to raise money and awareness for better homes,’ said Beta Vice President Kaitlyn Schmitt.

The students decided to take pledges for construction items such as light fixtures, lumber and nails so people would feel they’re ’not just donating but buying a piece of the next Habitat home,’ said Mattes.

In return for those pledges, the students will stay in their cardboard city at Griffith from 5 a.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday. The Habitat board will judge the houses.

Starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday, local bands Vessel, Shut Up Kevin and Modern Day Hero will play a benefit concert in the Griffith parking lot for freewill donations.

Beta President Mikala Barber said the club thought about holding a concert at the beginning of the year, but the timing wasn’t right, so they decided to hold it during 15 Hours of Hope to bring out more people.

At the same time, a Guitar Hero tournament will take place in the Griffith gym for a $5 entry fee, said Barber.

Tournament prizes will be a $25 gift card to Taters for first place, a $10 gift card to Taters for second place and ice cream from Scoops for third place.

All proceeds will go to Habitat.

’We would love for everyone to stop by and enjoy the concert and have a good time,’ said Barber.

However, if you can’t stop in, students will stand along Business 50 with buckets for drive-by donations, said Mattes.