By Kelly Ohriner

Community Council held bake sales to raise money to donate to those affected by the earthquake in Haiti during midterms week in January. All the money raised has been donated to Partners in Health and their new initiative called “Stand With Haiti.” In total, students and faculty donated $4,074.

Before and after the English and history finals, Community Council members laid out an assortment of baked goods and allowed students to choose how much to pay with a $25 limit.

Chief Financial Officer Rob Levin explained in an e-mail that the $25 limit seemed appropriate because “many/most people [were] donating [their parents’] money. Hence, it didn’t seem appropriate for them to be making heroic commitments.  Awareness and participation seemed more important.”

 “Most people were incredibly generous with their donations. The average was around $15 to $20,” Community Council member Gaby Cohen ’11 said. 

 “We came up with the idea in our eighth period class, the day that [the earthquake] happened, in 20 minutes,” Community Council member Cindy Ok ’10 said. “The Chalmers hallway was noisy as we all threw out ideas, and the 20 of us (10 seniors, eight juniors, and our two advisers) unanimously agreed that the bake sale would be the most viable fundraiser.”

“The administration was very supportive and let us use the charge card system with IDs,” Ok said. “The Prefect Council was equally good-natured in bringing baked goods and helping to run the booths. The baked goods were all brought by Community Council and Prefect Council students.”

The committee was mostly looking for participation rather than a specific dollar amount, Ok said.

“Not only did we raise over $4,000 for the cause, but there were also a lot of students who realized that the Community Council isn’t about the menial work behind service events,” Ok said. “Dozens of kids approached the table just to say ‘It’s so great that you’re doing this.’”