As part of a weeklong event that benefited local charities, the WinterFest 2002 UCSD Cares Campaign kicked off Feb. 19 on Library Walk and capped off Feb. 22 with the WinterFest 2002 concert, featuring local sensation Jason Mraz, punk group Fenix TX and R&B group City High.
More than 3,500 students attended the concert.
With all of the expectations and hype leading up to Friday night’s concert, the idea of charity remained the key focus in many students’ minds.
As Robby Pardlo of City High put it, “”Charity is important and any way we can give back is cool.””
WinterFest 2002 and the UCSD Cares Campaign give a little something of their own to a greater cause.
“”It’s cool that it’s a part of a charity event,”” said freshman Donald Povieng. “”In fact, I donated to the canned food drive myself.””
The campaign, presented by the A.S. Council and led by Event Programmer Eisha Christian, involved organizations such as the United Way, various fraternities and sororities, and numerous campus service and fundraising clubs.
This year’s WinterFest theme was “”Pick Your Cause! Choose Your Charity!”” and like previous WinterFests, it provided students with a variety of ways to give back to the community.
Activities included a blood drive at Earl Warren College, making bookmarks for underprivileged schoolchildren, making get-well cards for AIDS/HIV patients, bake sales, dunk tanks, canned food and clothing drives, and general donations of money and time toward service organizations.
“”The goal of the UCSD Cares Campaign is to bring back the spirit of community and the spirit of giving back to the community,”” said WinterFest co-coordinator Michael Hayes. “”We hope to make students aware of the different charities represented here this week.””
Thirty-one organizations joined in the cause. Each organization represented a particular charity, and they channeled all of their proceeds and collections to the charity of their choice.
Larger organizations such as the San Diego United Way encouraged students to donate their time toward a worthy cause by volunteering.
“”Each year the United Way has a campaign on the campus of UCSD,”” said Dan Wyman, co-chair of the UCSD United Way, “”This year we hope to do better than ever.””
A smaller organization, the Pi Beta Phi sorority, publicized an event it will be holding in May to benefit the San Diego Children’s Hospital.
“”We are promoting a dance that will be taking place on May 16,”” said Allison Milbank of Pi Beta Phi.
“”It’s a ’70s disco party and we’ve be doing it for the past couple years. Last year we raised about $1,500 to buy books for the Children’s Hospital’s library collection,”” she said.
Other groups such as Marshall Colleges’s Active Community Thurgood raised money for the San Diego Red Cross and the International Peace Kit Project by providing a dunk tank on Library Walk.
“”We have students from various walks of life on campus volunteering to be dunked, including A.S. President Jeff Dodge,”” said Gina Fiore of Marshall A.C.T. “”So far, we are doing wonderfully with the dunk tank. So hopefully this will become a tradition.””
As a charity incentive, students who made a donation to a service drive got their names on a logo sign to be placed in the UCSD Bookstore corner display. Other incentives included daily drawings for prizes and a free A.S. Council -sponsored barbeque Friday.
In all, the event raised over $1,000 for individual charities, 377 handmade cards for AIDS/HIV patients, over 90 bookmarks for schoolchildren, 630 cans of food, 320 hygiene and toiletry products, 800 articles of clothing, 210 toys, 43 school supply items, 273 pints of blood that will save an estimated 209 lives and more than 150 volunteer sign-ups for events that include tutoring and beach clean-ups.
The UCSD Bookstore and Sunshine Store also contributed a large amount by giving a portion of its sales and leftover change collected during customer purchases toward the United Way of San Diego.
“”We’ve come a long way since WinterFest first started with canned food drives,”” Hayes said. “”The idea was that we don’t have to give charity once a year, like around Christmas time. We can do it all year-round. I think we got the message through.””
Students’ reactions toward the weeklong event were positive.
“”I like what I’ve seen this week,”” said UCSD student Sherri Bender. “”This year it seems like there were more activities and more of an effort from students. It’s good for the community.””
While the charity was good for the San Diego community, the UCSD community came out to see the performers Friday night.
“”I came here to see Jason Mraz mainly ’cause I’m a huge fan,”” said UCSD student Jessica Venturi. “”I think it’s gonna be great ’cause he’s an awesome performer.””
Others, such as freshman Bobby Kim, came to see all three acts perform.
“”I’m hoping to see City High and Fenix TX,”” Kim said. “”I heard that Jason Mraz is awesome with the acoustic guitar and drums.””