Facing crunch time

UNC's largest Hurricane Katrina relief group wrapped up its major fundraising campaign this weekend, but it's not yet clear whether they reached their $50,000 goal.

Carolina Katrina Relief, a fundraising group comprising multiple student organizations, raised at least $25,000 during its two week drive, but the total won't be official until later this week, leaders said Sunday.

During the entire drive the group raised $17,989 in One Card and cash donations collected during classes and in the Pit. And NC Hillel President Mark Sussman said that after distributing Mardi Gras beads for donations all last week they raised almost $8,000.

"I think the beads helped to represent what our effort was about," said Erica Curry, vice president of the UNC Red Cross. "It brought a lot of people together as far as collecting the money goes."

The drive culminated with a campuswide donation collection that coincided with Saturday's home football game.

Student athletes and other volunteers collected money at the gates of Kenan Stadium during the game, the final tally for which was not available Sunday.

Athletic department officials report that a sellout crowd of 60,000 people attended the game.

John Blanchard, senior associate athletics director, said the Red Cross will count the money from the game later this week.

He said those donations might not have been as successful as they could have been if the drive had been held earlier.

"We got a great response," Blanchard said. "But I think that if we had a home game last week, we probably would have raised more money."

Curry said Carolina Katrina Relief will its continue efforts. The group will meet Wednesday to outline its next project.

"I don't want to give anything away," Curry said. "But we're going to talk about big relief efforts."

Blanchard said the athletics department hopes to continue its relief efforts.

"We are exploring possible ways to stay involved in the relief effort, but we're just not sure yet."

Julia Shalen, co-chairwoman of Student Government's public service and advocacy committee, said the relief effort was successful and that she is pleased to see so many organizations come together.

Representatives from the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, College Republicans, Young Democrats and various athletes aided in Carolina Katrina Relief.

"This is a good example of a lot of different organizations being able to come together," Shalen said.

She added that all the programs for raising money have been a learning process for how to coordinate effective programs on short notice.

"We've tried to put together the best events possible with the amount of time," Shalen said. "Anything would go better if we had more time to prepare for."

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.