Student puts donations on dinner table

Cristian Medina, a geologist and graduate student at the Indiana Geological Survey, said he was too shocked to believe what happened when he read about the earthquake in Chile in the early morning of Feb. 28.

It was not only his expertise in geology that made him feel more than related to the tragedy; it was his nationality.

As one of eight Chilean students at IU, Medina said he had to do something to respond. He has since organized two benefit dinners, one on March 6, which collected about $600, and a second that will be March 13 at Rumba Café.

“It’s my responsibility,” he said. “Looking at what happened in Haiti just weeks ago, I know people over there need a lot of aid. Same thing with my country, I want to do my best help to give some help.”

Medina said because he knew he could give limited aid due to his distance from his home country, he tried to call for some additional help from the local community.
“Local Latino minorities should build a strong tie so they can respond to certain needs more effectively,” he said.

Medina talked to his friend Socorro Vallejo, the owner of El Norteño, a local Mexican restaurant, and they decided to have “Benefit Lunch and Dinner to Help Haiti and Chile” to collect donations at the restaurant on March 6 and 325 people attended.

Twenty percent of the gross sale that day was donated to the International Response Fund of American Red Cross.

“We are very moved to see that many people want to help.” Medina said. “Time was so limited that it was difficult for people to know about the event.”

Medina also said he hoped to see more people at Rumba Café.

“It’s the same theme, just at a different location,” he said.

Medina said he would cooperate with Rumba Café to organize a similar event, featuring a special $45 dinner for two that includes one appetizer, two entrees, two desserts and unlimited soft drinks. The full amount of money from the dinner will be donated. Rumba Café will also donate 10 percent of sales from other meals on March 13.

“It’s a little bit hard for people to come, I know,” Medina said. “Students are going on spring break, but I hope local residents and remaining students on campus can still come to help.”

Medina said he strongly felt that people in Haiti and Chile were still far away from recovery.

“It takes a lot of time and efforts for people that suffered from disasters to recover,” he said. “I even think Haitian people deserve more aid because the economic situation of their country.”

Vallejo said she and Medina ended up using Facebook to inform people about the benefit.

“We had a page called ‘Benefit Lunch and Dinner to Help Haiti and Chile,’” Vallejo said. “Though only 60 or so people responded to the call, they spread it out to their friends, which is pretty good within about three days before the event.”

But Vallejo said the one event was not enough and he hopes the second dinner will be a success as well.

“We expected more people to come on that day, but not so many people were notified about this. We have already been very happy about it,” he said.

Medina said he understood how much it would take to soothe the people in Haiti and Chile, but he would do his best to help.

“It takes years to reconstruct those places,” he said. “I just want to contribute my part like thousands of others do.