Within three days, three local events raised about $6,300 for Haiti.
A concert featuring local bands and free beer at Brophy’s Irish Pub Friday night collected about $1,500.
Most of the money was collected through the $5 cover charge and donated to Partners In Health and Doctors Without Borders, which are organizations that provide medical care in countries affected by war, disasters or poverty.
About 250 people attended.
David Sutton, co-organizer of the event, spent last summer installing clean water filtration systems in Haiti and decided to organize the concert a week in advance.
Meredith McCall, a Gainesville musician, helped plan it.
She found four acoustic performers and two bands to perform.
Josh Roberts was the first performer and began by singing “Save Me” by Dave Matthews Band.
“I could never think about what it would be like to have no place to go, everything around me is destroyed and some of my family members were missing,” Roberts said. “There’s no health care; there is nothing for the broken legs, the broken backs, the cuts.”
The five other performers were To All My Dear Friends, Fast Lane, Monster, Meredith (of Redboy) and Erica C (of The Wooden).
Gainesville resident Andrea Cellini, 31, came because she wanted to support Haiti.
“I feel they’ve always had a rough time in Haiti, and this is the roughest they’ve faced in a long time,” Cellini said. About 300 other locals hoping to help Haiti attended Club Creole’s Spring Gala and Project Haiti fundraiser Saturday night at the Turkey Creek Golf & Country Club in Alachua.
Club Creole is a UF Haitian cultural organization, and the event auctioned off Haitian paintings. It raised more than $3,000 for Project Haiti’s medical mission trip to Haiti in March.
Jemima Douyon, a UF sophomore born in Haiti, said almost every Haitian person at the fundraiser knew someone affected by the earthquake.
“Five people died that I know,” Douyon said.
The event included a showing of a video taken near Port-au-Prince moments after the earthquake. The audience issued a collective gasp as a scene depicted a motionless, dust-encrusted hand protruding from rubble.
Aaron Jackson, the keynote speaker of the gala and co-founder of Planting Peace, a nonprofit organization that promotes health and safety around the world, spoke at the event.
He has spent about a week in Haiti helping with relief efforts and also encouraged gala attendees to do their part.
About 400 students attended a $5 pancake brunch Friday to benefit Gators United for Haiti.
The event raised about $1,800 and was hosted by Kappa Alpha Theta and Sigma Phi Epsilon, said Rachel Bevans, Kappa Alpha Theta president.
Bevans said the event also received support from people who are not involved in Greek organizations.
“It’s more about making a difference than having a social hour,” Bevans said.
Sigma Phi Epsilon president and finance junior Mike Eisen said the event was a good way to raise money while opening it up to as many people as possible.
“So many people were killed, injured and left homeless,” Eisen said. “With the resources we had here, we figured we could make something of a difference.”
