The student-organized “Saturday for Haiti,” a 16-hour fundraising marathon, included activities in the O’Connor Recreation Center.
The earthquake that devastated Haiti in January has largely faded from the headlines, but Hopkins undergraduates are working diligently to make sure that the survivors and their families are not forgotten.
The students, who represent dozens of different student groups on the Homewood campus, came together to form the JHU Haiti Aid Coalition and organized “Saturday for Haiti” on Feb. 19. The 16-hour fundraising marathon started with a pancake breakfast, continued with rock climbing, a Haitian dance class, and other activities at the O’Connor Recreation Center, and culminated in an evening of entertainment that included a student a cappella and dance showcase, a multicultural food tasting, and a dance party. The benefit raised about $2,500 for Haitian relief efforts and drew several hundred participants.
Money raised by the event will be split between Partners in Health and the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“We weren’t sure what to expect but we were really pleased with this outcome,” says Diana Wohler, a junior molecular and cellular biology major and a JHU Haiti Aid organizer. “The greatest surprise to me was that in the days following the event so many people came up to me and told me how proud they were that we were able to raise this much money. They also asked when we were going to do something like this again.”
Elsewhere across Johns Hopkins relief efforts for Haiti included:
