The Stony Brook Univer-sity chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, or NSCS, raised more than $500 in donations from Stony Brook students who attended the “Sing for Haiti” concert last Tuesday.
“It was important for people to recognize what happened in Haiti,” said senior Bernie Lubell, NSCS Stony Brook chapter co-president. Lubell said that the $500 raised was more then they thought. “This will really help Haiti.”
The earthquake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years. The capital, Port-au-Prince suffered imm-ense damage. The death toll currently stands at more than 250,000, and a study estimates that the cost could be between $7.2 billion and $13.2 billion.
The NSCS said that they will send all donations to Medicins Sans Fronteires (Doctors Without Borders), which have tended to approximately 1,000 patients since the earthquake. Several French doctors and journalists created MSF in 1971 as a humanitarian organization, and today it provides aid and relief in approximately 60 nations.
This was not the first time that the Stony Brook NSCS, which currently has more than 1,000 members, had put on a show like this.
“It’s an annual event,” said Minal Kadam, the sophomore chapter secretary for the NSCS. The NSCS staged “Sing for Darfur” two years ago to raise money for Sudan, a country ravaged by violence. “This year we chose Haiti because of the earthquake.”
Before the show, the NSCS presented a slide show of images from Haiti before the earthquake struck. “We wanted [the audience] to see what Haiti was like before, how devastating the earthquake was, and how this does make a difference,” Kadam said.
Alison Huenger and Sarah Khan, executive vice president and vice president of community service, respectively, formally began the concert shortly after 7 p.m. in front of more than 70 people.
Anjulie Jacques, a member of the Gospel Choir that would perform later that evening, sung the Haitian national anthem, “La Dessalinienne,” to kick off the concert.
It was not hard to find performers for the evening, said Kadam. “We know them from past events. Most responded with a quick ‘yes’.” There were 11 performances in all.
Lubell performed as well, singing Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.”
“I think it’s appropriate,” he said, afterwards, when asked why he chose that particular song. “The meaning it conveys is appropriate.”
Administrators, perfor-mers and viewers alike left that evening satisfied. Those who stayed afterwards had nothing but good words to say, and the overall mood was positive. The NSCS made it clear that the best part was raising the money for a country in need.
