Drewids ‘build bridges’ to Haiti

The devastating earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12 resulted in many local and national disaster relief efforts. Here on campus, the motto for the Haiti Relief Fund is, “Building bridges from The Forest to the island.” So far, the fund has successfully overcome this feat.
Drew’s Haiti Relief Fund is a three-part entity that gathers volunteers from all of Drew’s academic communities—faculty, staff and students alike. Some of the many clubs involved include the Art Club, the Political Science Club, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and the Theological Student Association. The strength of the collaboration between students and faculty was the catalyst for Drew’s Haiti Relief Fund.
Brian Schlemmer (T ’11), a campus and community fellow at the Center for Civic Engagement, described the group as an amazing set of people. “This originally started through the Center of Civic Engagement,” Schlemmer said. “A day after the earthquake, we talked about the need to make some kind of response since we were on break. All of a sudden, we got this huge response from students with creative and amazing ideas.” Schlemmer said, “It’s been so exciting to see what’s going on—it’s been everywhere.”
There are three different branches of Drew’s Haiti Relief Fund—an educational branch, a long-term planning for partnerships branch and a short-term planning committee. Although all three are part of Drew’s response, the short-term committee is the driving force behind much of the fundraising done on campus.  “The short-term group serves two purposes—giving students an opportunity to participate and sending cash to organizations on the ground,” Schlemmer said. “We knew a lot of students had this urge to help, and the immediate need is fundraising,” he added.
Since the first day of the second semester, the fund has planned and hosted several events. From tabling at Back to Classes Jam to Pub Night, the fund has grown in finances as well as popularity. “People have the initial urge to get involved,” Schlemmer said.
According to various fund members, feeding  a Haitian family for a day costs $2.00, which was the suggested donation when the fund tabled at various Drew events. On Pub Night, $1.00 of every beer purchased went to Drew’s Haiti Relief Fund. They wound up raising over $400.00 at Pub Night and $247.00 in ribbon sales.
Another upcoming opportunity for Drew students to donate will be to create and send health kits to the victims in Haiti. The cost per kit is $12.00, but the fund is currently accepting the donation of items needed to make the kit. By bringing combs, bandages, nail clippers, washcloths, soap or toothbrushes to the Volunteer Resource Center in the U.C., Drew students can help Haiti in a simple, yet important way.
Drew’s Haiti Relief fund has a very organized and diverse plan for donating the monetary funds they receive. The Lambi Fund, Partners in Health, MADRE, Shalom Zone Haiti, Partners in Development and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) are the six groups chosen by the committee. All of the proceeds from fundraising will be evenly dispensed to these six organizations.
“We wanted organizations that represented the diverse interests of Drew students,” Schlemmer said. “We hope this will draw students with many different concerns.”
With all of these programs, there are still many goals for the Drew Haiti Relief Fund. According to the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement, Amy Koritz “Drew might host a service DIS to Haiti next year.”
In the immediate future, Drew’s Haiti Relief Fund hopes to include a sacrificial meal, a cut-a-thon with one of the Madison hair salons and monthly Pub Nights for fundraising. “Anybody who has an idea and is willing to be hands on is welcome to come to these [committee] meetings,” Schlemmer said. “We’re hoping that people will become more educated about Haiti and learn to be better global citizens.”
The next meeting of the Drew Haiti Relief Fund will be this Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. in the Seminary Hall Atrium.