Donor to triple Gunnery students' funds for Haiti

The Gunnery's Haiti Project that galvanized students in the immediate aftermath of last month's earthquake has continued to spawn new efforts on the Washington campus.

Inspired by students' effort and fundraising -- nearly $5,000 has been raised to date -- an anonymous friend of The Gunnery has pledged to triple student donations.

The contributing student groups met the week of Jan. 25 to chart their next steps and direct their funds to a worthy cause.

The groups included the Gunn Society, One World, the Community Service Group, the student government and Gunn dorm members.

Many of the students have formed strong personal ties to the country through the collaboration with twins Johnathan and Justin Charles, whose family live in Haiti, faculty member Ari Baum's cousin, Aaron Baum, who survived the earthquake and recently spoke to the school, and associate dean of students Kate Merritt's brother, Peter, and his wife, who have been working at an orphanage and school in Haiti.

The three groups that will receive the students' donations will be Foyer Despois in Port-au-Prince, an orphanage/school/student center sponsored by the Vermont Haiti project and Ms. Merritt's brother's project; the Institute of Human and Community Development in Port-au-Prince, Aaron Baum's micro-finance group's project; and the Cine Institute in Jacmel, a group that teaches aspiring Haitian filmmakers how to report their own stories.