Undergraduate and graduate students alike will come together Saturday in a day-long effort to raise funds for Haiti.
The event, named “Hoops for Haiti,” will feature a three-on-three co-ed basketball tournament at Hutchinson Gymnasium throughout the day and will conclude with a happy hour at the Blockley Pourhouse, where various items will be raffled off.
The School of Medicine, the Junto Society, the Interfraternity Council and the sprint football team organized the event together, according to co-organizer and fourth-year Medical student Sean Fedyna.
The Junto Society, a group of graduate students that gets together and discusses contemporary issues and plans outreach projects, came up with the idea for the fundraiser soon after the earthquake struck Haiti, Fedyna said.
“We started talking about things we could do to raise money … from there, no pun intended, it snowballed into the tournament and happy hour,” Fedyna said.
So far, the event has raised $8,000 in matching corporate sponsorships, $4,000 worth of prize donations and $2,000 in registration fees for the tournament.
“We have a ton of money committed already … we’re really excited and proud to consider this the number one fund-raising event for Haiti on campus,” Fedyna said.
The tournament will involve 48 teams in round-robin play, in which every team plays every other team once.
In addition to the tournament, which will last from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., attendees can enter 3-point shooting contests in order to win more prizes.
The day will conclude with a happy hour at the Blockley Pourhouse from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at which prizes such as Yankees tickets, a gift basket of Godiva Chocolates worth $200 and Nike apparel will be raffled off.
Co-organizer and fourth year Medical student Brian Raphael felt that organizing the event has been “a great experience … we decided early on that we wanted to put on an event that everyone at Penn would be proud of.”
