Palo Alto High School alumni are contributing to relief efforts for victims of the disastrous earthquakes that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, and Jan. 20.
2009 Paly graduates and former Voice members Michael Bloch and Amin Ronaghi have started online social networking groups for their colleges on Facebook.com to raise awareness for the crisis in Haiti.
“With all the photographs and statistics that are coming out about yesterday’s 7.3 magnitude earthquake, I just felt compelled to try and do what I can for the victims of this tragedy,” Bloch said on January 13.
Ronaghi felt similarly.
“I was shocked about the immense amounts of casualties and damage done to the people of Haiti from the earthquake, and I wanted to do something about it,” Ronaghi said.
Ronaghi outlined simple instructions for students who want donate money to relief organizations.
“What I thought was important was to spread awareness and guide people on how they can help,” Ronaghi said.
Bloch and Ronaghi’s groups gathered more than 2,800 and 500 members respectively. Bloch called various UC Berkley organizations, including the American Red Cross at Cal, Cal UNICEF and The Berkley Group to raise money for relief.
Additionally, Bloch tried to help Save the Children secure a grant from Chase bank.
Chase Bank was hosting a competition called Chase Community Giving. Non-profit organizations will seek the most votes from Facebook.com users to win $1 million for their efforts. Invisible Children, another non-profit organization, has pledged that $100,000 of that potential prize money would be sent to Haiti relief efforts.
Bloch notified Haiti Earthquake Relief-UC Berkeley members on Facebook.com that the competition ended on Jan. 22, and that votes would be helpful in securing money for Haiti relief.
Ronaghi also sent out alerts to group members, publicizing a Haiti-support event, during which students would wear red on Jan. 19 in an effort to raise awareness for victims of natural disasters.
The Haiti Earthquake Relief-UC Berkeley group created an event on Facebook that allows users to access information about college student relief efforts.
Bloch’s group is promoting efforts by the Associated Students of the University of California to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquakes.
According to the Donate to Partners in Health Haiti Relief Campaign-UC Berkeley Effort website, “The ASUC is also teaming up with several universities around the country as part of a friendly competition…If every student at UC Berkeley donates $5, we’ll have $170,000 easy, all of which will go to aid the 100,000+ people in need.”
The movement is nationwide, with other schools including Dartmouth University, California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Washington University in St Louis also collaborating with Bloch’s organization.
Bloch is also working in collaboration with more than 30 student groups at UC Berkley to put on a week-long event from Jan 29 to Feb 5. Guest speakers, a capella groups, dance teams, student government, Greek, and faith-based groups are all expected to participate.
“The Haitians need help now and we want to support them as much and as quickly as possible,” Bloch said.
Editor’s note: The original version of the story stated that Bloch and Ronaghi held a candlelight vigil for survivors of the earthquake. The vigil never occurred. The current version of the story reflects this change.