UPDATED 9 a.m. Feb. 17: Here are some of the ways East Central Illinois residents are helping the people of Haiti.
We will update this as more events occur; if you have an event, please send the details to [email protected] with “haiti relief” in the subject line, and include a way for us to contact you to verify details:
- Concern about the victims of the Haitian earthquake has prompted the students of Hendrick House to organize several fundraising events during February, which is also Black History Month.
Resident Director Saheed Rosenje said throughout the month the entire Hendrick House advisory staff and a majority of the student government officers there will volunteer time and efforts to raise funds for Haitian relief.
The money will be donated to Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. The owners of Hendrick House have pledged a donation matching the funds raised by the students.
“The awareness is still here now,” said Grace Wellman, a resident adviser, “but we fear that it will decrease as the month continues, while the need will still be present.”
Smash for Haiti will be from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Feb. 27 at Hendrick House and will be open to the public. Students and guests will be invited to play video games, “beat up” on their friends on screen and join in free tournament and free play of Super Smash Brothers Games. More information is available at www.smashforhaiti.org.
The students also will be able to express how much they ”love” their resident advisers by contributing to collection cans adorned with the adviser’s photo, throughout the month. The adviser with the most raised on March 1 will get a pie in the face.
“Kisses for Haiti,” Feb. 1 – 14, encouraged students to be sweet to their friends by sending them CandyGrams, which were delivered on Valentine’s Day. The Hendrick House Government provided the CandyGrams with the students’ total purchase price going to the Haitian fund.
- Some Franklin Middle School students have raised $700 so far through their “Helping Hands for Haiti” fundraiser.
Members of Franklin’s National Junior Honor Society are collecting donations at lunch, after school and at sporting events for relief in Haiti.
They’ve put a “Helping Hands for Haiti” bulletin board in the school’s cafeteria, with photos of the nation. Anyone donating for earthquake relief can write his or her name on a hand and put it on the bulletin board, said Meg Goethals, a sixth-grade reading teacher and the adviser for the National Junior Honor Society.
“Instead of getting a snack that day, (students) are giving their money to Haiti,” Goethals said. “It’s been really nice to see.”
The students hope to reach $1,000 in donations. The student organization emphasizes leadership and community service, in addition to academics.
The fundraising drive will continue through February. The students will donate the money they collect to the American Red Cross.
- CHARLESTON — Students from Eastern Illinois University, along with the Haiti Connection, will be collecting donations for Haiti.
The university’s Conferences and Event Planning class will be selling “Stand with Haiti” wristbands, in addition to collecting medical supplies and monetary donations throughout the semester.
Wristbands will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Thursday in the University Union and in Coleman Hall. In addition the students will also have a table set up before the women’s basketball game at 5 p.m. until after the televised ESPNU men’s game on Thursday outside Lantz Arena.
Medical supplies such as Tylenol, bandages, antacids, toothbrushes and vitamins will also be collected during the basketball games. Batteries also will be collected.
All proceeds benefit Haiti earthquake relief efforts and will be made through the Haiti Connection, which is affiliated with the Newman Catholic Center. Contact Dan Crews, instructor of the conferences and event planning class, at (217) 581-2113 or Roy Lanham with the Haiti Connection at (217) 348-0188 for further information.
Crews said the group has set a goal of raising $1,000, but he “would not be surprised if we doubled that by the end of the semester.”
- The newly organized group C-U Haiti Relief presented an international forum and fundraiser for Haiti, called “I (Heart) Haiti”, on campus this week.
Speakers with knowledge of Haiti shared their perspective about the country, and gave information on ways to participate in relief efforts, said organizer Melissa Pognon. The event also featured musical performances by drummer Bolokada Conde and Rhythm Manding, featuring dancer Alseny Soumah.
Conde and Soumah, both from Guinea, West Africa, have toured the world with Guinea’s top-performing music ensembles and are currently visiting instructors at the university through Robert E. Brown Center for World Music. Rhythm Manding is a group of Bolokada’s students who often accompany him for local performances.
For more information: www.bolokadaconde.blogspot.com
C-U Haiti Relief is a consortium of students, faculty, and Champaign-Urbana community members working for disaster relief in Haiti. The group is an initiative of Planners Network, an association of professionals, activists, academics and students involved in planning professions who promote political and economic change.
- Students at Prairie Elementary School in Urbana are collecting jars of peanut butter to send to Haiti.
The peanut butter will be given to the First Christian Church Friday, which will send them overseas. The school is hoping to collect 100 jars of peanut butter.
The relief project ties in with the school’s study for Black History Month of George Washington Carver, a scientist who conducted research on peanuts.
- Students from an Urbana High School sociology class, taught by Mark Foley and Ellen Dahlke, netted about $2,200 for earthquake relief in Haiti during the week of Feb. 1.
The students sold red T-shirts and bracelets, had a bake sale, collected pledges and placed donation cans around the school. They sold the red “We (Heart) Haiti” T-shirts and the bracelets at the Urbana-Champaign Centennial basketball game on Feb. 5.
A portion of the gate receipts and concession money from the game also went to Haitian earthquake relief, through the UNICEF Foundation.
- Students from Carrie Busey Elementary School students celebrated the 100th day of school the first week of February by raising more than $700 for Haiti.
Students were asked to bring in 100 coins of any denomination and donate them to the American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
Several staff members suggested collecting coins, then decided to combine it with the 100th-day celebration, said teacher Crystal Hunt, who is also student council sponsor for the school.
Several of her first-graders brought in 100 pennies or 100 coins. By the end of the week-long drive, students had raised $738.02.
- Champaign West Rotary Club raised more than $10,000 during a 24-hour winter campout in downtown Champaign on behalf of Haitian relief.
Members camped in emergency shelters from ShelterBox International, which has already provided shelter for more than 30,000 people in Haiti.
Each ShelterBox supplies an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and lifesaving equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless (see www.shelterboxusa.org). The agency estimates more than 1 million Haitians lost their homes in the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Rotary International is a primary sponsor of ShelterBox.
The Champaign West Rotary shelter was set up at 202 S. Neil St., C, until 6 a.m. Feb. 4. Rotarians collected money throughout the event, and the total came to $10, 412. That will be added to the $4,905 already donated by individual Rotary members, a club press release said.
Area businesses supporting the campout included WDWS-AM, The Atkins Group, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Devonshire Realty, First State Bank, BankChampaign, One Main, Rogards, Robesons, Kanfer Gallery, AR Mechanical and Tatman’s.
- Students at Central High School donated $2,000 to pay for two ShelterBoxes in Haiti.
The Interact Club raised $1,000 when it set up a ShelterBox display in the school lobby and showed a video of their use around the world. And the Student Council decided to allocate another $1,000 for a second ShelterBox.
- Amy Hatch and Laura Weisskopf Bleill, co-founders of chambanamoms.com, offered to donate a dollar apiece, up to $100, for each post on their Web site about individual Haiti relief efforts.
Five people agreed to match the pledge, so the effort totaled more than $300, Bleill said.
- An Urbana couple is spearheading a community quilt project to raise money for Doctors Without Borders relief work in Haiti.
Jacqueline Hannah is seeking at least 100 donated quilt blocks for quilts that she and her husband, Mike, will put together. The finished quilts will be raffled off, with the proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders.
The blocks can be simple or fancy. They should be 12 inches square, with bright colors and no words or drawings. They may be of any pattern but should be pieced or appliqued.
Hannah is also looking for donations of cotton quilting-quality backing material, as well as batting from old blankets that are not stretchy and are thin.
Blocks from kids are welcome as long as they are pieced, meaning the blocks have more than one piece of fabric sewn together.
Hannah has a simple pattern she can e-mail on request. Her e-mail is jzwhannahgmail.com.
She and her husband will cover most of the costs but would appreciate donations. Hannah and her husband also want help sewing the quilts.
Hannah asks for the blocks by Feb. 20. People may drop them off at the Common Ground Food Co-op on the east side of Lincoln Square Village in Urbana. Hannah is manager of the co-op.
- Yankee Ridge School in Urbana collected more than $1,000 through its “Hundreds for Haiti” campaign that ended Thursday..
Fourth-grade teacher Vickie Cromwell suggested a penny drive to tie in with the 100th day of school celebration that day. Children started bringing in coins earlier this month.
Principal Mary Beth Norris said Friday she hadn’t tallied the final amount, but “it’s probably over $1,000.”
“We’re excited about that,” she said. “I think everybody was looking for a way to help and make a difference in Haiti.”
- South Side School in Champaign also raised money for Haitian relief, led by third-graders Cecilia Allen and Georgia Atkinson and and fifth-graders Maddie Atkinson and Sophie Wathen.
They put collection boxes in every classroom, and set up a table at the school’s annual Fun Night celebration Friday. The total haul: $350. The money will go to the American Red Cross.
- St. Matthew School in Champaign challenged its 450 students and 50 teachers to donate $10 apiece for Haiti.
They surpassed that goal on Feb. 5, raising $5,213 for Catholic Relief Services, according to Principal Kathleen Scherer.
- At Holy Cross School in Champaign, children were asked to bring in their own money for a special collection for Catholic Relief Services. If they didn’t have any, they could offer a good deed or a prayer, said Principal Rose Costello.
They collected a total of $1,200.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services