Students Raise $56,136 For Haiti Relief

By randyramirez in Blog on March 10, 2010 at 4:57 pm | No Comments

Student Government, Student Volunteer Board, and Texas Roundtable leaders gathered at the Tower Tuesday to present $56,136 in student-raised funds to aid Haiti relief efforts.

After seeing the devastation in Haiti, Texas Roundtable president and former Texas Wranglers president Reilly Milton said he felt called to do something. Other student leaders agreed — but what? 

Then Milton came up with the answer. OK, he admits, it was really his mom’s idea.

Why don’t you do a hold up for Haiti? she asked him.

Texas Wranglers raise $30,000 each year for the Easter Seals of Central Texas by spending a Saturday morning at intersections around Austin collecting money from drivers-by.

Milton originally proposed a goal of getting 400 volunteers on Austin’s streets in hopes of raising $12,000.

On Feb. 6, 600 student volunteers showed up and the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas agreed to match each dollar collected.

Eugene Sepulveda, CEO of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, was on hand to accept the obligatory cardboard check. 

The foundation has already raised more than $1 million for Haiti, including the money from UT and several thousand more from other universities.

Some of that has already provided aid to Haiti through the work of the Red Cross International Fund, Partners in Health, and Save Our Children.

Sepulveda said the original focuses were on basic needs: food and water, shelter, and health and sanitation. They plan to continue providing aid in those areas as well as through education and economic empowerment. 

Vice President of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez said UT is proud of the students for stepping up and embodying the University’s motto of changing the world.

“In this hour,” he said, “what started here is hopefully changing Haiti for the better.”