2008 Woodie Awards
In The Face of Disaster
Colgate Urged To Help
Jessie Slenker
Issue date: 1/21/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
The scene of massive waves engulfing homes, streets, buildings and loved ones seems fitting for a motion picture, but almost realistically impossible. The December 26 tsunami, triggered by an undersea earthquake off Sumatra, caused unimaginable destruction with powerful walls of water crushing 11 Asian countries. Over 212,000 people are reportedly dead, 166,000 in Indonesia alone. Thousands of people are missing and millions are now critically threatened by disease and famine. This level of destruction and heartache is difficult to comprehend, but the interest expressed by the Colgate community to provide relief is not.
Numerous Colgate students joined together on January 16 at the ALANA Cultural Center to jumpstart relief efforts and brainstorm fundraiser ideas. A plethora of thoughts were proposed from a range of student body representatives, but a single issue was continually reinforced, which was that the University must step-up and do everything it can to aid those devastated by this disaster. Center for Outreach and Volunteer Education (COVE) Director Marnie Terhune led the Sunday night meeting and urged students to spread the word about campus relief projects. When she asked why Colgate students and faculty should help, replies ranged from "because the affected area is home to several Colgate students," to "because we're a rich school that needs to give back." Fundraising ideas include a large-scale dinner banquet with proceeds going to the Red Cross, canned good drives, possible alumni functions, photo exhibits, a CUTV telethon, silent auctions and capitalizing on existing campus events.
Before any project is undertaken, specific goals for the Colgate relief efforts were outlined. "Obviously the immediate need is to raise as much money as we can to provide emergency assistance to those affected by the tsunami, but I hope this project goes beyond that," Terhune said.
Spearheading these efforts are seniors Kaitlin LaCasse and Jeremy Neigher and sophomore Rob Dieringer, who have extensive plans and elaborate ideas to get the entire Colgate community involved. "I want to get involved with the relief efforts because I have been privileged with the opportunity to go to Colgate and to have gotten the education I have here," Neigher said. "Most importantly, the reason I am doing this is because I have to... I cannot sit idly by and watch this horrific disaster and the millions of lives it has affected and not do my part. Colgate and its resources offer the perfect opportunity to help. I only hope that my effort can motivate others to take action and make this an incredibly successful event."
Numerous Colgate students joined together on January 16 at the ALANA Cultural Center to jumpstart relief efforts and brainstorm fundraiser ideas. A plethora of thoughts were proposed from a range of student body representatives, but a single issue was continually reinforced, which was that the University must step-up and do everything it can to aid those devastated by this disaster. Center for Outreach and Volunteer Education (COVE) Director Marnie Terhune led the Sunday night meeting and urged students to spread the word about campus relief projects. When she asked why Colgate students and faculty should help, replies ranged from "because the affected area is home to several Colgate students," to "because we're a rich school that needs to give back." Fundraising ideas include a large-scale dinner banquet with proceeds going to the Red Cross, canned good drives, possible alumni functions, photo exhibits, a CUTV telethon, silent auctions and capitalizing on existing campus events.
Before any project is undertaken, specific goals for the Colgate relief efforts were outlined. "Obviously the immediate need is to raise as much money as we can to provide emergency assistance to those affected by the tsunami, but I hope this project goes beyond that," Terhune said.
Spearheading these efforts are seniors Kaitlin LaCasse and Jeremy Neigher and sophomore Rob Dieringer, who have extensive plans and elaborate ideas to get the entire Colgate community involved. "I want to get involved with the relief efforts because I have been privileged with the opportunity to go to Colgate and to have gotten the education I have here," Neigher said. "Most importantly, the reason I am doing this is because I have to... I cannot sit idly by and watch this horrific disaster and the millions of lives it has affected and not do my part. Colgate and its resources offer the perfect opportunity to help. I only hope that my effort can motivate others to take action and make this an incredibly successful event."