The Public Service Center, the Undergraduate Association and the Graduate Student Council have organized a fundraising drive to raise money for the families devastated by last Tuesday's tragedy.
The whole MIT community can help by passing along information on the effort, donating time at collection sites and/or contributing money.
The drive will run through Friday, Sept. 21 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day with collection sites in Lobby 10, the Student Center lobby, the Beaver Room in Walker Memorial, and the Sloan School lobby (Building E52).
Money will be sent to the American Red Cross fund in Washington that has been set up specifically for the families affected by the disaster. Checks can be made out to "Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund."
Sign-up sheets for volunteers for collection sites are posted outside the Public Service Center in Room W20-547. You can also phone the center at x3-0742 to ask staff for help signing up, but people are asked to sign up in person if they can. Each collection site will have a nearby office where volunteers can pick up signs and jars and drop off collections after each shift. Volunteers will receive detailed instructions by e-mail after they sign up.
BLOOD DRIVE
The Red Cross Blood Drive held on campus last week collected enough blood to help more than 1,000 people before organizers had to turn away about 500 donors due to a shortage of available nursing staff.
Richard Barbalace (S.B. 1997), one of the coordinators of the MIT blood drive, said early estimates of the four-day drive, in usable pints, are 109 for Monday, 156 on Wednesday and 129 on Thursday. The drive was canceled Tuesday. Even the 109 pints collected Monday was a higher than usual number, he said, attributing the results to extra publicity.
The next blood drive at MIT is scheduled for early December. For more information on that drive and blood drives on other local college campuses, go here.
Individuals may also donate blood at the Boston Donor Center on Stuart Street, which is open Monday through Friday and one Saturday each month. For hours, directions and information about that and other donor center locations in Massachusetts, see the American Red Cross web site.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 19, 2001.
