Devon McAndrew
Staff Reporter
Hope collapses at the sight of the crumbled and broken-down structure of the Presidential Palace located directly in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This building was the oldest structure in the city and provided a home for their leader as well as hope for the people when it had survived previous small earthquakes and a larger one in 1946.
As it lays in ruins, it serves as a reminder that Haiti will never be the same; it’s history has changed forever.
On January 12, 2010, The 7.0 M earthquake struck Haiti leaving 170,000 dead (as of January 26, 2010). There are still over 30,000 missing and 1.2 million homeless.
Haiti had already been declared the poorest country in the western hemisphere and this tragic earthquake left the country even more broken with no one to turn to but the rest of the world.
McDaniel College students can perform simple actions to help out the people of Haiti.
The easiest way to donate money is through any cell-phone carrier by text messaging “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross relief efforts, “YELE” to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts, or “GIVE10” to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief.
At McDaniel there are 1,700 students and if every student donated $5, our school alone could raise $8,500.
The Red Cross has also been sending a lot of donated blood to Haiti. The blood donation go to seriously injured people in Haiti.
ITunes offers a collection of songs put together by various artists called Hope for Haiti Now. This album offers 20 songs for $7.99 and 100% of the proceeds go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (see CD review in this issue by Rula Zaru).
On campus, Resident Life is hosting Hearts for Haiti, a semi-formal dance, in the Forum on February 12, 2010. This event will include music, food and a silent auction. The silent auction will have items donated from the community and students on campus and all of the proceeds will go to Haiti.
“I don’t think Americans in general are doing as much as they could be doing for Haiti,” said freshman Catherine Frondorf. “Compared to third-world countries who are making an effort to help Haiti, such as Belize, the United States could be doing a lot more.”
A little donation can go a long way.
