At 4:53 p.m. last Tuesday, some students were in class. Some were doing homework, and others were having a good time. At the same time, the ground was shaking in Haiti. The people of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere were experiencing 30 seconds they will never forget.
In response to the tragedy, the Ball State University women's rugby team is organizing 'Ruggers Helping Others,' an effort to collect money and cans to help the people of Haiti.
'We take everyday things for granted,' senior advertising major Krista Hess said.
Hess is the safety and advertising chair for the women's rugby team. She said the team is going to start trying to do two service projects per semester.
'We treat so many things as tasks,' she said. 'Even sometimes we treat practice as a task. These people don't even have homes. Many don't even have their lives.'
Hess said she got the idea after watching hours of coverage of the earthquake on TV. She then researched ways to collect money and goods for Haiti's citizens.
'They don't really want people to send more [than money and cans],' she said. 'We were going to send clothes, but none of them really wanted anything like that.'
The team hasn't picked the organization it'll cover yet. They're also still sorting out where people can bring the cans, since Hess lives off campus and said that it would be inconvenient for everyone to bring them there.
'We're basically collecting as many cans as we can,' she said. 'We don't want to set an exact number. We just want to keep going.'
Hess said her experiences volunteering after Hurricane Katrina influence why she feels the need to help. Yet, she said trying to compare the two events is impossible.
'We have resources they don't in Haiti,' she said. 'It's a thousand times worse there.'
Freshman Brittany Vaught, who is helping with the fundraiser, said her past volunteer experiences influence her desire to help. During the summer she does mission trips with her church.
'I've seen the people in need,' she said. 'It hits home when you see their lives.'
Team members are recruiting family and friends to help. The team is holding a call-out meeting where they'll tell new members about their service project at 9 p.m. in the Health and Physical Activity Building, Rm. 100. Hess said she hopes the campaign will spread from there.
'Word of mouth is the most influential, persuasive way to collect cans,' Hess said.
Students can use extra money from their meal cards to purchase cans to donate. They will be collecting cans and money through Feb. 12 and will donate everything in the name of Ball State women's rugby.
To help, contact Hess at bsuwomensrugby@gmail.com or through the Facebook group 'Ruggers Helping Others.'
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