Mercer University is responding to the devastating earthquake in Haiti this week through fundraising and prayer, and is developing a coordinated long-term response. The University is coordinating its efforts across all campuses and locations in order to maximize the impact of the Mercer community’s response. The University Worship on Jan. 20 will be devoted to discussing ways to help and praying for the victims of this tragedy.
“The White House and other informed agencies indicate that the most urgent need is for funding in order to provide food, shelter and emergency medical care,” said Dr. Craig McMahan, university minister and dean of the chapel. “While sending service teams or collections of goods may be part of Mercer’s long term response, our present focus will be on channeling money to where it is needed most as quickly as possible.”
McMahan’s office is coordinating the University’s response, in consultation with President William D. Underwood, and McMahan urged all Mercerians: students, faculty and staff on all campuses to join in this critical relief effort.
McMahan’s office is collecting monetary gifts from the University community for the American Red Cross. Mercerians are encouraged to bring contributions to Kim Adams in the Religious Life Center. Those writing checks should make them out to the American Red Cross and write “Haiti Relief” on the memo line.
In addition, individuals may bring donations to the University Worship on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 10 a.m. in Newton Chapel on the Macon Campus. The service will be devoted entirely to the crisis in Haiti. The service’s offering will go to Haitian relief and will be presented to the Red Cross. Tracy Willis-Kight, executive director of the Central Georgia Chapter of the American Red Cross, will be there to give an update on the relief effort in Haiti and to suggest ways to help in the future.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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