The Haiti Service Team from St. Francis of Assisi Parish is hoping to raise a couple hundred more dollars in addition to the nearly $12,000 they've already raised for an alternative Spring Break.
The band Popple, which describes itself as "Catholic acoustic fun," will have the concert at 7 p.m. Feb. 23 in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom. Tickets cost $3 and concessions are free. Service team leader Pam Forgille said she hopes to raise $150 from the event.
Forgille has gone on about 10 trips to Haiti in her lifetime and her family sponsors six Haitian children.
She said when the earthquake hit, there was a cloud of sadness over the country.
"We felt a similar type of sadness after 9/11," she said. "But this is a different magnitude and a greater magnitude."
During Spring Break, six students and four adults from St. Francis of Assisi Parish will travel to the town of Plaisance and work with Haitians to build a cobblestone path to the river.
Graduate student Amy Cleeter said when the group started fundraising, it asked a priest if the money raised for the trip would be better spent as a donation.
He said no, going there gives the Haitians hope and it shows people care, Cleeter said.
When the priest told her that, she said it made her think about Americans' misguided thoughts about happiness.
"We think we know what creates happiness," she said. "They don't have those [material] things, but they have that great joy. That's really impressive."
Cleeter said money raised at the concert will go toward paying for school lunches at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Plaisance. Even before the earthquake, the school was struggling to find enough food for lunches.
The town is about 40 minutes from Port-au-Prince and in the aftermath, food availability has become more scarce, Cleeter said.
"Money raised is going to anything in Plaisance that's needed," she said. "Right now, the need is for school lunches. We're trying to bring some normalcy back into their life after tragedy."
Holly St. John, travel and tourism major, said she's looking forward to the alternative Spring Break.
"I wanted to do something along the lines of a service trip," she said. "I didn't want to go on the typical Spring Break to Florida. I wanted to give back."
Each person was asked to raise $1,000 toward the trip, and St. John said they've already done three extensive fundraisers.
"We've had a lot of mental preparation and a lot of prayer," she said. "I'm apprehensive because I've never been to a third-world country, and we'll be around people living a life so different from mine. But I know we're going for the right reasons."
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