Spring Break
Relief efforts raise money for victims
by Ruth Orbach
Staff writer
News | 9/16/08
Posted online at 3:52 AM EST on 9/16/08
/ Last updated at 3:29 AM EST on 9/16/08
Members of the Student Union and National Collegiate Volunteers led a weeklong disaster relief campaign and raised just under $5,000 for victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in Cuba, Haiti and along the southeastern American coast, according to Noah Kaplan '09, a member of the National Collegiate Volunteers, and Jamie Ansorge '09, Student Union director of communications.
The money raised will be donated by the end of this week to the American Red Cross and to international relief funds
"Enough people expressed an interest" in donating their time and money to providing aid, Kaplan said. "People started saying we should do something."
According to Kaplan, the aid was given in monetary donations. The relief effort was initially going to be a food or clothing drive, but both the American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency Web sites discouraged people from sending goods to stricken areas.
"Sending food is not the most efficient way to help," Kaplan said. "It's expensive, and we can't know if it actually helps."
"We reached out to Noah Kaplan and National Collegiate Volunteers about sending students to affected areas but soon realized the quickest way to make a difference was with a donation drive," Ansorge said.
"We could have found a grassroots organization without overhead," Kaplan said. This would have involved days of research, however, which would have delayed the initiative that took form overnight. "We came up with this idea early [last] week," said Kaplan. "This idea, and acting on it, has happened in a short space of time."
Ansorge called the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay. "By that time, Tropical Storm Hanna was pouring rain on Brandeis, and Hurricane Ike was on its way. That's when we decided to make it a larger hurricane elief project," Ansorge said.
"By the end of the weekend, we expect to have raised around $5,000, which would exceed the University's response to [Hurricane] Katrina," said Ansorge.
The money raised will be donated by the end of this week to the American Red Cross and to international relief funds
"Enough people expressed an interest" in donating their time and money to providing aid, Kaplan said. "People started saying we should do something."
According to Kaplan, the aid was given in monetary donations. The relief effort was initially going to be a food or clothing drive, but both the American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency Web sites discouraged people from sending goods to stricken areas.
"Sending food is not the most efficient way to help," Kaplan said. "It's expensive, and we can't know if it actually helps."
"We reached out to Noah Kaplan and National Collegiate Volunteers about sending students to affected areas but soon realized the quickest way to make a difference was with a donation drive," Ansorge said.
"We could have found a grassroots organization without overhead," Kaplan said. This would have involved days of research, however, which would have delayed the initiative that took form overnight. "We came up with this idea early [last] week," said Kaplan. "This idea, and acting on it, has happened in a short space of time."
Ansorge called the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay. "By that time, Tropical Storm Hanna was pouring rain on Brandeis, and Hurricane Ike was on its way. That's when we decided to make it a larger hurricane elief project," Ansorge said.
"By the end of the weekend, we expect to have raised around $5,000, which would exceed the University's response to [Hurricane] Katrina," said Ansorge.
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