Students exceed fund-raising goals for hurricane relief

From the Feb. 13, 2006, Princeton Weekly Bulletin

Princeton undergraduates have raised more than $24,000 for relief and recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region following last fall’s Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The students exceeded their goal of collecting $23,715 ($5 from every Princeton undergraduate).

The funds include:

• More than $5,300 from a benefit concert in the University Chapel that featured performances by the Chapel Choir, Gospel Ensemble, Glee Club, Wildcats, Culturally Yours, Tigerlilies, Tigertones and Shere Khan, as well as choirs from Princeton High School, Westminster Choir College and the American Boychoir School.

• More than $3,300 from a benefit concert at the Quadrangle Club, at which the following groups performed: Expressions, Koleinu, TapCats, Shere Khan, Black Arts Company, Wildcats, BodyHype, Culturally Yours, Tigressions, Triangle Club, Naacho, Katzenjammers, DiSiac, Juggling Club and Tigertones.

• Nearly $3,500 from a Jurassic 5 Lawnparties Concert at the Quadrangle Club and T-shirt sales at the Frist Campus Center.

• More than $2,500 from a Classical Benefit Concert in Richardson Auditorium.

• More than $2,500 from a Gulf State Dinner Competition among residential colleges.

• More than $6,000 from benefit events hosted by eating clubs including Cloister, Cap and Gown, Ivy and Cottage.

• More than $600 from the Hip-Hop Versus Katrina event featuring GZA/Genius from Wu-Tang Clan.

• Nearly $600 from a Katzenjammers event.

According to junior Tom Brown, undergraduate life chair of the Undergraduate Student Government, the money will be disbursed to: the American Red Cross; Dillard University, with which Princeton and Brown universities have formed a partnership to restore operations; a school in the New Orleans Parish School System; Volunteer Mobile and the United Way of Acadiana, La. (students have gone down over fall break and intersession to volunteer for these two organizations on Student Volunteers Council trips); and other reputable charities. Each organization receiving funds has a specific tie to the Princeton community, Brown said.