Huskies 4 Haiti formed at UWT

In the wake of the 7.0 Richter scale earthquake that hit Haiti on Jan. 12, many organizations came to the rescue. Organizations such as the American Red Cross, Americares, Catholic Relief Services, Habitat for Humanity and multiple others worked to pull Haiti out of the gutter. Now that UWT has its own program, Huskies 4 Haiti, students and faculty can make donations locally. "Because of the constant coverage on the news and feeling hopeless, I knew that I wanted to do something for Haiti," Student Activities Board Chair, Diana Lopez, said. Huskies 4 Haiti started at the UW Tacoma campus. In order to get the program up and running, Lopez had to get permission to be at multiple events, the materials for t-shirts, hats and buttons, as well as an organization to donate the money that they raise. All the proceeds that are donated are given to the American Red Cross, and Aimer Haiti. "We've set our goal at $5,000 and we have a live feed on our Web site that notifies the public as to how much we've made," Lopez said. As of press time, Huskies 4 Haiti has made $1,957. To check the Web site yourself, visit http://huskies4haiti.yolasite.com. Yet, they don't plan to stop even after they've met their goal. "My goal is to keep going throughout the year. I want it to be more than just a quarterly event," Lopez said. Lopez' advisor, Student Program Specialist Shanna Kinzel, seemed to agree. "When a huge disaster happens like this, people are quick to help in the beginning, but it doesn't last for very long. Take Hurricane Katrina for example," Kinzel said. When Student Involvement came together, Kinzel had wanted to do something for Haiti. "We were talking at our staff meeting about it, but I always feel that it's more effective if a student comes up. When Diana came up to me, I was thrilled," Kinzel said. Now Huskies 4 Haiti is selling hats, t-shirts and greeting cards. All the materials have been donated by Classic Impressions, The Compleat Company and Northwest Embroidery. The buttons that they are also selling were put together by UWT's Student Activities Board. Additionally, Michael Johnson, Coordinator of New Student Programs, created the logo for the t-shirts. If you are interested in any of these items, buttons sell for $1, greeting cards sell for $5, t-shirts sell for $10 and hats sell for $20. But even if you aren't interested in any of these items, you can still make donations in MAT 103 Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Huskies 4 Haiti has already been present at UWT's Unity Breakfast, Dr. T errence Roberts' Lecture, Open Mic, and Step Afrika. Future events that they will be present at include Taalam Acey, Husky Hangout, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, February Open Mic, and the Coffee House Concert. Although at these events they have been hosting tables, Huskies 4 Haiti has had two events of their own. On Monday Jan. 25 from 12:30-1:30 in the oUWTpost, Huskies 4 Haiti held their own benefit concert with Freshman Joseph Franco on the piano. "I see a lot of outpouring from the news and since I can't go over there, this is my own little way of helping out," Franco said.

Students gathered in the oUWTpost, and Franco played the piano on the balcony so that everyone on campus could hear. "We want to draw some more attention to the cause. We're going to keep going not just until we reach our goal, we're going even past our goal" said SAB Marketing Assistant, Chad Dwyer.

SIDEBAR * Wed, Feb 3 @ Taalam Acey - 6:30 to 8:30 pm @ LSH

* Wed, Feb 10 @ Husky Hangout - 12:30 to 1:30 pm @ WPH Commons

* Thurs, Feb 11 @ Pray the Devil Back to Hell - 6:00 to 9:00 pm @ LSH

* Wed, Feb 17 @ Open Mic - 6:30 to 7:30 pm @ oUWTpost

* Thurs, Feb 25 @ Coffee House Concert - 6:00 to 8:00 pm @ Cutters Point