The effort to help the victims of the World Trade Center collapse is emanating out of some unlikely places.
Take Yvonne Giorgio's office in Student Financial Services, for instance.
After organizing drives to amass funds and supplies for the soldiers in the Gulf War and the victims of flooding in the Midwest, Giorgio and her colleagues sprang into action after Tuesday's tragedy.
"It was just natural for us to say, `What can we do now?'" said Giorgio, a Financial Services staff member.
Operation Brotherly Love, a drive to collect money and supplies and food for rescue volunteers and attack victims, was the tangible result of Giorgio's need to help.
Starting with just a few e-mails sent out to colleagues and fliers posted around campus, the drive has provided a campus-wide outlet for charity.
Since the effort officially got under way on Friday, more than $600 has been raised, with individual donations ranging from $10 to $100.
"It's just some lady that walks in that I don't know and gives $50, and somebody else who will e-mail and say that they've got dog food, Giorgio said. "That's how it is. They don't care to have a thank you or recognition."
For the large part, the collection depot has attracted staff members, such as one visitor to Giorgio's office yesterday who asked not to be identified.
"I was going to give anyway and this was more convenient than going anywhere else," said the woman, who made a financial contribution.
Goods have been pouring in as well. The Veterinary School is expected to contribute dog food and boots for the rescue dogs, and just yesterday Giorgio received word from a group of students gathering clothing for displaced New York University students.
A local moving company offered one of its trucks to haul donations up to New York for the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
Giorgio said her collection savviness comes from 13 years heading up Operation Santa Claus, which gives money and gifts to orphans and the elderly in West Philadelphia.
"I'm not a pushy person, but when something's important enough, I try to be a little pushy," Giorgio said.
To encourage the stream of donations, Giorgio managed to get the project listed on the University's emergency information page.
Frank Claus, Giorgio's boss and the associate vice president for finance, calls her "the University's self-made Mother Theresa."
"She's just an amazing person who just attracts this amazing outpouring of generosity," Claus said.
She admits that she tends to think of the endeavor as a personal project, but adds that "it becomes personal to every person that brings a dollar or brings a pair of socks."
Other University departments have also been pulling together. Penn's human resource department began a fundraising campaign for the Red Cross last Friday, with tables in Houston Hall and the Franklin Building lobby.
Vice President for Human Resources John Heuer said that while helping with trauma counseling last week, his department encountered many students, faculty and staff willing to help -- but unsure of where to go.
"All during that time period, so many students and faculty and staff came up to us and said, `How do I donate blood?' and `Can I make a donation here?'" Heuer said. "We responded to the needs that we were hearing."
Remaining true to their charitable goals, the organizers of the multiple collection efforts don't consider each other rivals.
"It all winds up in the same place -- we're not competing," said Lucy Momjian, associate vice president for financial and treasury management. Another human resource official said that the interest level among the staff was so high that people were "fighting over time slots" to man the tables.
Red Cross spokeswoman Sarah Suh said that the personal dedication behind grassroots drives such as these make a huge difference in providing care.
"Fundraising would be lost without groups like that," Suh said of the Penn initiatives. "They have better resources to reach the community -- sometimes better than we do."
