Barely a day after last month's tsunami ravaged parts of Asia and Africa, a small group of University students thousands of miles away from the disaster began a conversation that has developed into a large-scale relief effort.
Students walking by Minor Hall Monday night may have seen signs directing them inside to a major tsunami relief fundraiser that featured speakers reading survivors' accounts, a bake sale, tea, souvenirs from Thailand and raffle prizes -- one of which was a $100 gift certificate to Jaberwoke.
Students may also have stopped by the Buffalo Wing Factory for a bar night last night that donated proceeds to post-tsunami aid.
In mere weeks, what began as an exchange of words between second-year College students Caitlin Howarth and Daniel Pike and third-year College students Andrés Gil and Dina Hardy transformed into a CIO called UVA-SHARE (Students Helping Asian Relief Efforts) -- the organization responsible for these fundraisers and potentially more events in the future.
"We were all talking online, checking the news and watching the numbers of deaths rise every hour," Hardy said. "We were just absolutely horrified, and had that instant feeling that everybody has, which is, 'What can we do?'"
To answer that question, the friends passed around many ideas. Howarth said they agreed to plan "some sort of fundraising effort, be it clothing drive, food drive, just whatever is going to work."
Then, one idea clicked: Organize a fundraiser at the University.
"I can give $10 and you can give $10, but if we get everyone to, we're giving a lot of money," Hardy said. "And Daniel [Pike] started doing the math and he was like, 'If everyone at U.Va. gives $5, we could raise half a million dollars!'"
With such possibilities swirling in their minds, the students could not afford to let the idea pass as empty talk.
"We were like, 'Ok, let's really do this, let's not just say this is something we're gonna talk about, let's really start organizing it,'" Hardy said.
Because the group felt that speedy action was of dire importance, they immediately began to spread word of their intentions. Creative publicity was key since most students were still on winter break. With that in mind, UVA-SHARE sent a message to University students on thefacebook.com and e-mails to friends and various student organizations who they thought might be interested in participating.
"So we started sending e-mails to our friends and to groups, and then no one responded for three days," Hardy said. "And I was like, 'Oh, no! How does no one else care about this?' And then, people started responding."
Third-year College student June Suepunpuck, president of the Thai Student Organization, was one of the students contacted by UVA-SHARE.
"I was on vacation when I heard about this, and I couldn't just sit around and not do anything," Suepunpuck said. "I had e-mailed all my organization members asking them, is everyone okay? And luckily, all my members responded and were like yeah, we're fine. Then I found out about Dina [Hardy] and the UVA-SHARE program, and we started talking back and forth, and all my members got so excited because some of them do have friends who were personally affected by the tsunami, this tragic event -- we just need to get involved."
UVA-SHARE also contacted Indian Student Association President Monica Gill. When she first heard of the tsunami, she made the decision with other ISA leaders and the ISA executive board to change the target of their annual benefit to post-tsunami aid. Hardy's e-mail further led ISA to join with the University as a whole in the aid effort, Gill said.
"There was never a question a question of, 'What should we do?'" she said. "It was like, we're going to do something, right now, and we want to help out any way we can."
In addition to the organizations that UVA-SHARE approached directly, other groups have volunteered to help. The Tea Club sold tea at Monday night's fundraiser and has been actively tabling on the Lawn, Hardy said, putting that group alongside TSO and ISA as cosponsors of SHARE's events. The International Relations Organization assisted with posting flyers, the Monroe Society donated money, the Hillel Jewish Student Union is giving money and Black Voices plans to donate proceeds from their next concert. Hardy added that other students at the University have organized events and fundraisers, though not necessarily via SHARE.
Even with so much backup, however, organizing such a major project in so little time -- and at the start of the spring semester -- had its challenges.
"It was a little tough because we had to compete with Rush," Howarth said. "But we also have to compete with the problems that we had. We knew we had about three weeks between the actual disaster and getting here, getting things going on Grounds, and we didn't want people to forget. So we didn't want to wait until after Rush was done before we moved forward."
Yet the collaborative effort of all the participants put the project in motion quite rapidly.
"With all of us really devoting most of our time over the holidays and since we've been back here at school, it hasn't been that hard," Howarth said. "We're now a CIO."
There were, however, small disappointments along the way. Planning back at home, the students' initial idea had been to organize a Lighting of the Lawn-style event. As it turned out, "you can't reserve the Lawn unless you are, in fact, the Lighting of the Lawn," Hardy said.
"Originally when we thought we were going to be able to do it on the Lawn, I had sort of high-blown ideas of getting Varsity athletes in to do some quite silly things like take penalty soccer kicks against the varsity goalkeep, trying to throw the ball further than the quarterback and whatnot, and then that all kind of changed when we realized couldn't get the Lawn," Pike said.
They soon learned they could reserve the Amphitheater, however, and they took it from there. First, they arranged to sell baked goods and tea and give out raffle prizes.
Pike also adapted his plans to the change in location. Abandonning the sports idea, he ended up asking speakers to read survivor stories Monday night. "Most of [the material] came from WebLogs online," Pike said. "I thought that would be the best way to get firsthand accounts. Some of the best pieces, the speakers picked out themselves."
A group of SHARE members, headed by Andrés Gil, also organized the bar night held yesterday.
Planning for both Monday and last night's events began before many members of SHARE and most University students had even returned to Charlottesville. Over their breaks, Gill and Suepunpuck spent time preparing for the main event.
"What I had my members do -- and I don't know if it was good to ask this or not -- if they were in Thailand, they should bring back souvenirs that are really inexpensive there, and we can just give them as a gift to anyone who donates," Suepunpuck said.
These souvenirs were also featured at Monday night's fundraiser.
Gill also asked for help from her members and said she was pleased with the response.
"They wanted to come, they wanted to help set up, they told all their friends, everyone had it on their profiles and away messages, everyone just trying to get the word out."
Once students did return to the University for the spring semester, they set up tables to raise funds on the Lawn, which Gill and Suepunpuck said was a tremendous experience.
"It's fun tabling on the Lawn and seeing how people react to that, and how they'll just pull a 20 [dollar bill] out of their pocket and they'll be like, ok, whatever," Gill said.
"Because we don't expect that," Suepunpuck added. "We're like, give us pennies, it really does not matter to us. And when they pull out a 20, you just give them a hug."
Howarth did not seem as surprised, but was just as grateful.
"It's the biggest humanitarian disaster in recorded history," Howarth said. "And a lot of people get that, and a lot of people have been extraordinarily generous for being poor, broke students."
So generous, in fact, that Hardy said tabling for the first three days of classes alone UVA-SHARE "raised just over $500."
"I think what's really interesting about this whole event is that people like me and Monica [Gill], our parents immigrated from our original country, and these are the countries that are being affected by the tsunami," Suepunpuck said. "It's kind of like a personal event that occurred, even though for me, I haven't been back to Thailand since I was 10 years old. I have such a disconnection I feel, in comparison with the international students, that were there. That it's just amazing how it runs through your blood."
At the same time, Suepunpuck continued, she saw students with no direct connection with the affected countries were also strongly affected by the tragedy.
"It's amazing because people like Dina, people who totally have no affiliation with the country are coming out," Suepunpuck said. "Things like that just amaze me and my members who are straight from Thailand -- that's awesome that people all throughout U.Va., who have no connection to my country, can feel as much as I do, if not more. That's just something that touches you in a way that I don't think anyone can ever describe."
Gill said she was also impressed by the turnout.
"I think the thing that surprised me the most was when we went to our first meeting as UVA-SHARE, and I was little bit late, so I came in and there were just like a good 25 people sitting there," she said. "And it wasn't even people, honestly who are Indian or Indonesian
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