February 5, 2010
Students and faculty at Westfield State College are coming together to raise money and awareness for Haiti relief. The college has mobilized on three fronts: fundraising, educational programs about Haiti and plans for humanitarian trips to Haiti.
Jenny Daverna, a native of Haiti now living in Taunton, and Dominique Price of Worcester are leading the fundraising efforts, along with other students, faculty and staff, and organizations.
The grassroots effort began the day after the earthquake in Haiti, when Daverna and Price, who both work part-time in the office of Multicultural Affairs, talked about wanting to help the Haitians with Edna Wilander, assistant to Carlton Pickron, dean of Multicultural Affairs.
“We wanted to find a way to get the entire campus community together for a relief effort and we started asking around,” Daverna said.
The students got the support of President Evan S. Dobelle, Susan LaMontagne, dean of students; and Elizabeth Preston, dean of faculty; as well as several other faculty members and student organizations. Several events and initiatives came together.
“I’m extremely proud of the way this relief effort evolved at the college,” Dobelle said. “The fact that it was generated by students and enthusiastically supported by faculty and staff, speaks well for the level of compassion and concern for others that is commonly expressed on this campus.”
The Haiti earthquake tragedy struck especially close to home for Daverna. Born in Port-Au-Prince, she was raised in nearby Carrefour before immigrating to the United States. She learned that an aunt and cousin died in the earthquake and other family members were hospitalized or homeless. For a while, an uncle was missing, but later found.
“To me it felt like a nightmare, especially as the story was unfolding and the number of deaths kept getting higher,” Daverna said. “I could not believe that I used to walk on some of those streets.”
Events have already begun, and collections will continue at all campus events, including basketball games throughout February. The Class of 2011 is selling Haiti Relief T-shirts in the Ely Campus Center.
Upcoming events include a bake sale in Wilson Hall scheduled 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, sponsored by the Persona literary magazine. The magazine also is sponsoring a poetry-writing contest for poems with a Haiti theme. The winning poem will be published in the spring edition of Persona.
A film about Haitian history, The Agronomist, will be shown and discussed from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Bates Hall, Room 118, also on Tuesday.
Dancing with the Professors, a public event set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, in Dever Auditorium, is expected to be entertaining as faculty and staff volunteers perform dance routines taught by the students. Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society for Education, organized the event. The Westfield State College Dance Team will also perform. There will be a $2 admission and raffle.
Additional events planned include a music benefit hosted by WSKB, the student radio station at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the Ely Main Lounge and a benefit show sponsored by the Class of 2010 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, in Dever Auditorium. Tickets for the benefit are $5 for students and $10 for adults.
The Westfield State College Dance Team, Competitive Dance Team, Pep Band, Musical Theatre Guild, and Night Owls, the student singing group, also plan benefit performances.
“As always students are stepping up to the plate,” LaMontagne said about the students’ community service efforts. “They do it all the time.”
The money raised will be donated to Partners in Health and other Haiti relief organizations, LaMontagne said.
Faculty members are planning a variety of ways to incorporate educational efforts in classrooms, or by offering teach-ins, workshops and partnerships to educate people on various topics and issues related to Haiti.
Cynthia Siegler, director of International Programs, is organizing humanitarian and educational trips to Haiti once the region is safer.
Organizers Price and Daverna have been very active campus leaders in many other ways.
Price, a senior criminal justice major with a multicultural and ethnic studies minor, is a member of the Student Government Association (SGA), the Third World Organization, the Institutional Diversity Advisory Committee and Campus Technology Committee, among others, and is co-chair of the Student Conduct Board and Student Affairs Committee. She is also a student orientation leader, and an Alcohol Choice Education program mentor.
Daverna, a senior communication major, also has been an SGA member, and is a student ambassador for the college. Her many recent activities include being a peer counselor and recruitment leader for the Urban Education Program and a residential assistant.
She was a student representative traveling with college officials to Haiti last year to explore possibilities for an educational exchange program there. She also volunteers for the Westfield Soup Kitchen and works closely with the Konbit Football Organization, collecting soccer equipment and other donations for needy children in Haiti
Daverna also has been very active in the college’s study-abroad programs. She has studied in Ghana and Ireland, and is scheduled to leave soon as one of the college’s first students to spend a semester in China.
For more information on the college’s Haiti relief and education efforts, visit www.wsc.ma.edu/haiti/.
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