SUNY Purchase Hosts Haiti Benefit, Launches Project Haiti

Alexis Betancourt, a junior at SUNY Purchase, said that after news broke on the recent earthquake in Haiti, she was immediately worried for her roommate's family who lives there.

Luckily, her friend's family survived the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, but hundreds of thousands of other Haitians weren't as fortunate. The fact that the disaster struck so close to home for Betancourt inspired her and two other SUNY Purchase students to organize a benefit event.

Betancourt, Purchase senior Kazeen Famuyide and junior Laura Montes are the main coordinators of "Haiti Needs Us," a 13-hour long day of music, auctions, craft sales, food and money-raising efforts today.

Betancourt, Famuyide and Montes are joined by over 500 other Purchase students who have donating their time and talents to "Haiti Needs Us."

"Every single penny that we make is going to the American Red Cross. We're looking to make upward of $5,000," said Betancourt.

Betancourt said that SUNY Purchase President Thomas Schwarz is planning to match donations from out-of-pocket.

The benefit, which will start at 12:30pm in the Student Center, will include music by a host of performers, including Miz Metro, Under the Rasta Influence, Great Dane and Urban Fetch.

"Haiti Needs Us" is also coinciding with the launch of a broader educational and cultural program called "Project Haiti," which is headed by Purchase student Francisco Donoso.

"We really want to celebrate Haitian culture in solidarity with the people who are suffering in Haiti," Donoso told Patch.

Project Haiti was founded by Donoso and fellow students Gloria Bennett, Shannon Muir, Kevin Collymore, Rosa Jaffe, Kevin Cai, Tarissa Whitley when they found out about the earthquake.

"We just knew we had to do something," said Donoso.

"What we really want to do is, together as a campus community and the immediate community outside Purchase College, is fundraise as much as we can and educate people on Haiti," Donoso said. "It's really important to us as college students to understand who we're doing this for."

Betancourt, who is also on Project Haiti's planning committee, echoes Donoso's urgency for action in the fact of crisis.

"Purchase is known in general to come together in times of crisis to help other people out," she said.

The Jan. 12 earthquake has left hundreds of thousands dead, missing, and homeless and has essentially destroyed the country's already delicate infrastructure. Although the situation remains grim, international outpouring of aid has helped to alleviate suffering in Haiti over the past few weeks.