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Haverford’s Haiti relief effort goes deep

By Matt Kirsch
For NCAA.org

The initial goal was to raise between $5,000-$10,000, but thanks to the power provided by the Haverford College baseball team during the 2010 season, “Home Runs for Haiti” raised $11,727.

The purpose of the initiative was for members of the college community and surrounding area to pledge money for each home run hit by the Fords. Haverford belted 33 long balls this past spring, which tied for the second-most in a single season in program history.

In addition to their own team initiative, the athletic department organized “Haverford for Haiti Day” on April 10. Fans pledged money for each run or goal by the four Haverford teams that played home games that day.

“We are humbled by the success of our ‘Home Runs for Haiti’ pledge drive,” said sophomore first basemen Jake Chaplin, who came up with the idea along with senior pitcher Adam Lewis. “Both on and off the field, the Haverford baseball program is a reflection of the heart and spirit of the Haverford community as a whole. We are deeply grateful for the response we knew would we could count on from our extended network of caring friends and family.”

The money was donated to Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières – an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, natural disasters, or exclusion from health care in nearly 60 countries. Doctors without Borders directed the funds towards their operations treating the victims of the earthquake in Haiti by providing urgently needed medical care and humanitarian aid to thousands of vulnerable people.

 “We couldn’t be more pleased with the results of our ‘Home Runs for Haiti’ drive,” said Lewis. “Reaching a final total of over $10,000 greatly exceeded our expectations and was a great tribute to both the efforts of our team in seeking out donors and to the generosity and compassion of the Haverford community.”

Thanks to the efforts of Haverford, MSF has treated more than 137,000 patients and performed 8,000 surgeries at MSF locations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“We are providing surgical and emergency medical care, addressing the post-operative needs of our patients including rehabilitation, physiotherapy and mental health, and distributing tents, blankets, and hygiene and cooking kits to people still displaced or lacking sufficient shelter,” said Charlie Kunzer, a marketing associate for Doctors without Borders.

The Haverford effort is among many at Division III institutions since the January earthquake. Shortly after the disaster, the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee challenged its network of campus and conference SAACs to raise at least $100,000 by December 2010.

Division III schools heeded the call so much that they exceeded the $100,000 benchmark by May. Division III national SAAC members said that despite having met the benchmark, they’ll continue to encourage their peers at the grass-roots level to keep raising funds through the previously stated deadline.

The challenge was in addition to a $300,000 gift the NCAA made to UNICEF to help with that organization’s relief efforts in Haiti in the weeks after the natural disaster. While the gift represented $100,000 from each division, the Division III governance leadership (the Presidents and Management Councils and the Division III SAAC) challenged SAACs at the campus and conference levels to match the division’s portion of the gift.

Matt Kirsch is the sports information director at Haverford College.