UMW students raise more for Honduras
UMW students helping Honduras
BY ERIN LEACH-KEMON
Date published: 2/1/2008
BY ERIN LEACH-KEMON
After a week in Fredericksburg, UMW alum, Shin Fujiyama returns to his home in Honduras with a promise of more than $75,000 for orphans and impoverished families.
A student-run group at the University of Mary Washington--Students Helping Honduras--won the prize money after finding out about an online fundraising competition more than a month late and rose to second place in just one week.
The organization plans to use $10,000 of the winnings to purchase fuel-efficient cooking stoves for 300 people in the Honduran squatter village, Siete de Abril.
Additionally, funds will be used to send the 40 girls from the village's orphanage to college, saving them from a possible future of prostitution, Fujiyama said.
Auditors must first review the donations before the winners are officially announced.
Parade magazine and its partner, the Case Foundation, developed the contest, which was conducted entirely online, and provided $500,000 in awards for various charitable organizations.
The organizers challenged supporters of charities to compete against other groups to see who could win the most donations over the course of a month in a half. The top four organizations won $50,000 each and the 50 groups that followed won $1,000 apiece.
Students Helping Honduras member, junior Erin Kelly, discovered the competition in mid-January.
Although the contest had begun Dec. 13, she e-mailed the organizer to find out whether SHH could still join. After completing 14 pages of paperwork, Kelly received permission last Wednesday for SHH to join the race.
Fujiyama, co-founder of SHH, said that when they first started campaigning, they were hundreds of votes behind other organizations. On Monday they stood in 15th place, but by Wednesday they had moved to fifth and then first place.
"We're really experienced about this because we've done it before," Fujiyama said.
The group held fundraising Phone-a-Thons every day from Saturday until Wednesday night. Initially, students met in one of the member's off-campus houses, but moved the gatherings to the university's Campus Christian Community, right next to campus.
Other students worked from their dorm rooms and homes, calling friends and family, e-mailing, instant messaging, as well as using Facebook and MySpace.
Across the state, chapters of SHH at other colleges worked simultaneously to gain donations, including Virginia Tech, William & Mary, and Christopher Newport.
Earlier this week, SHH met with the Rappahannock Rotary Club and had over 50 members donate on the spot, said Fujiyama.
On the last day of the contest yesterday, members ran a table on the first floor of UMW's campus center for four hours, requesting donations from friends and strangers as they passed. SHH brought laptops and used nearby school computers to collect donations from people.
In the end, the group had a total of 1, 698 donations. They had earned second place, winning $50,000 and an additional $28,000 in donations.
Erin Leach-Kemon : 540/374-5000, ext. 5661eleach-
Email: kemon@freelancestar.com
| TO HELP:
To make a donation to SHH, go to their Web site atstudents helpinghonduras.org.
On April 19, SHH will hold their third annual Walk-a-Thon on UMW's Fredericksburg campus.
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| HOW SHH BEGAN:
Shin Fujiyama and his sister, Cosmo, founded the nonprofit organization exactly two years ago.
Fujiyama first became interested in Honduras after visiting on a mission trip organized through UMW's group, Campus Christian Community
SINCE THEN
He organized an on-campus walk-a-thon in 2006 and received an offer from The Sunshine Lady Foundation to match the total profits, earning SHH $148,000.
In the second-annual walk, SHH raised over $110,000, as well as the matching funds from the Foundation once again.
After graduating last May Fujiyama took the Medical College Admissions Test, then moved to Honduras with his sister.
His scores on the MCAT stand for three years, so he plans to work and live in Honduras full time for three years and then go to medical school. "My heart stays in Honduras, though," he said. |
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Date published: 2/1/2008
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