Students rush through hallways plastered with dozens of fliers every day. But this time, something was different. The fliers were crying out for help, expressing the voices of people in need during the Haitian earthquake. Three dedicated students decided to take action after hearing about the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that destroyed most of Haiti.

Whitman athletic collection boxes:

Sophomore Alex Purdy placed collection boxes for donations at the entrance to all Whitman basketball events.

“I just saw all the devastation that happened and I knew that they needed the money as quickly as possible, so I figured that this would be a really quick and easy way,” Purdy says. “I know if our nation was in trouble people would help us, so I figured we could do our part to help them.”

She discussed the idea with her mom and immediately created a Facebook group, which soon gained about 140 members, to get the word out quickly.

The Pom squad is also planning on donating money to Purdy’s fundraiser.

Heart 4 Haiti t-Shirts:

Similarly, freshman Brett Sachs spread the word about her Heart 4 Haiti t-shirt sales through Facebook.

“Everyone in Haiti really needs help and it’s such a little donation-just $20,” she says. “You can put it towards anything, and if you put it towards Haiti you get to get something for donating your money.”

After her grandfather decided to do their annual holiday family community service project  for Haiti, instead of memorable past projects such as adopting a child from the Children’s Inn for the holidays, Sachs designed the t-shirts on the computer.  The family initially bought 180 of these t-shirts with the intention to sell them as a fundraiser.  However, after the Facebook group grew to over 700 members, they decided to order 110 more.

“We hope that we’re going to sell everything,” Sachs says. “We’re going to sell them some way or another going around to different schools and everything.  All of the money goes to the Red Cross.”

When evaluating her design, Sachs says she considered what would be most appealing to students. The final design she decided upon was a black t-shirt featuring the words  ‘Heart 4 Haiti’ on the front and ‘Lend a Hand’ on the back.

Croissant and red ribbon sale:

French Honors Society senior president Anna Meyssami, along with her club, took a slightly different fundraising approach, choosing to sell croissants during exam week for $2 apiece and red ribbon support pins for $1 apiece.  All proceeds went to Doctors without Borders.

The club raised a total of $215 and is planning to repeat the fundraiser in the near future.

“Well, [the situation is] pretty bad out there,” Meyssami says. “We need to do what we can, and this is a great thing to do.”