by Holly Ramer
CONCORD, N.H. -
Pulling an all-nighter just a week into
winter term has paid off for three Dartmouth College students, not
with good grades but with a massive fundraising campaign that has
raised more than $133,000 for Haiti's earthquake victims and become
a model for other campuses.
Two days after the Jan. 12 quake, seniors Frances Vernon, Maura
Cass and Alexandra Schindler stayed up until 6:30 a.m. developing a
campus- and community-wide strategy to raise money for Partners in
Health, an organization co-founded by Dartmouth President Jim Yong
Kim that has operated in Haiti for decades. Given Kim's connections
to the group, the trio knew Dartmouth would send a medical team to
Haiti and wanted to match that effort with the same intensity.
"We might not be trained medical professionals, we might not
have the financial resources to mobilize and be on the ground in
Haiti, but we have time and we have brain power," said Vernon.
What emerged from that Thursday night spent making lists and
sketching diagrams on huge sheets of paper tacked to the wall was a
strategy to bring together students, faculty, staff and community
groups. By Jan. 16, they had signed up leaders for eight committees
ranging from monetary collection to communications, and by Jan. 17,
they were ready to hand out assignments to 300 volunteers who
showed up at a kickoff rally.
"It's about finding what you can do and what your place is in
this response," she said.
For some, that may mean simply agreeing to e-mail alumni,
friends and family seeking donations. For others, "it's become a
full-time job in addition to other activities and school work,"
said sophomore Becky Waite, who is drawing on her local connections
as a Hanover resident to co-chair the Upper Valley Outreach
Committee.
Her group has been helping area schools organize fundraisers,
seeking business sponsors for a benefit concert, coordinating
efforts with local churches, and have worked with the owner of a
bus company to install signs and donation collection containers on
buses.
Mark Arnoldy, a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder,
said he relied heavily on Dartmouth's model in helping create the
fundraising campaign he and other student leaders are about to
launch. While Dartmouth has an advantage given Kim's background
with Partners in Health and the quickness with which he sought to
get students involved in the relief effort, Arnoldy said he is
confident his school will reach its $100,000 goal.
"We were inspired by Dartmouth in a big way," he said. "We're
hoping this can serve as an impetus for some of the other Big 12
schools in particular to launch a similar campaign."
Seeing how Dartmouth organized its committees was particularly
helpful, Arnoldy said. He has studied charts and other information
Dartmouth students have posted online and has been in touch with
Vernon, who plans to review CU's strategic plan.
At Northwestern University, senior Peter Luckow said he's been
impressed that Vernon and other Dartmouth students are looking
beyond the immediate disaster and thinking critically about
long-term issues in Haiti as well. His school has surpassed its
more modest fundraising $8,000 goal and is looking to increase its
goal soon.
According to the Partners in Health's Web site tally of personal
donations, the $133,000 raised by Dartmouth as of Monday afternoon
far exceeded the next highest total -- $51,000 raised by FACE AIDS,
a Stanford University group.
"Just by the numbers alone it's clear that students across the
country can learn a lot from what (Dartmouth students) have been
able to do," he said. "One of things that's impressed me about
Frances and her team's approach is that this isn't just about
short-term relief it's really about thinking critically about these
issues and thinking in a long-term way."
Dartmouth students acknowledge that Kim's leadership and
willingness to help them has bolstered their efforts, and they
point out that because of their academic calendar, they were back
on campus earlier than students at many other colleges. But Vernon
and others said they are all part of a generation of students who
want to make a difference.
"This isn't about one or two universities. We think it's a
reflection of the pulse of this nation's university students right
now," Arnoldy said. "I think we're all out to prove together that
even a small group of students spread out across the nation can
leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars, which become millions
when we pool this together."
