 "Photo: N/A")
Members of West Virginia University’s Student Government Association plan to raise money and awareness for the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti Tuesday.
SGA President Jason Zuccari began the first meeting of the semester by holding a moment of silence for the casualties.
Zuccari announced an SGA partnership with the Student Health Advisory Board to send monetary relief to the country.
The campaign, "Dollars for Disaster," will begin next Tuesday by collecting money at a booth in the Mountainlair, said Kayla Poling, SGA’s chief of staff.
"In the past, SGA always does things when there is floods, tsunamis and earthquakes," Poling said. "This is just as important because it is a huge disaster."
Most students would give some of their money or time if given the opportunity to offer some assistance to the victims, said Ericka Neumann, a freshman biology major. Neumann and her friend, Amy Rapp, a freshman pre-nursing major, learned of the disaster online.
"It made us feel very sad," Rapp said. "Students should know something like this could have happened anywhere."
Lack of interest in world events was the reason Amanda Rush, a freshman design and merchandising major, said she had not heard of the earthquake.
Karen Macaulay, a freshman forensics major, agreed with Rush, saying she was too involved with her school work.
The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation a day after the quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people.
The earthquake brought down buildings great and small – from shacks in shantytowns to President Rene Preval’s gleaming white National Palace, where a dome tilted ominously above the manicured grounds.
Hospitals, schools and the main prison collapsed. The capital’s Roman Catholic archbishop was killed when his office and the main cathedral fell. The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing in the ruins of the organization’s multistory headquarters.
As of press time, 16 U.N. personnel were confirmed dead, and the International Red Cross said a third of the country’s 9 million people may need emergency aid.
Preval said thousands of people were probably killed. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, but conceded that nobody really knows.
"Let’s say that it’s too early to give a number," Preval said.
The AP contributed to this report.
Be the first to comment on this article!