PT students, faculty raise $6,100 for Katrina aid

5:10 p.m., Sept. 23, 2005--Students, faculty and staff members of UD’s Department of Physical Therapy so far have raised $6,100 for victims of Hurricane Katrina during their “Hurricane Relief Challenge,” a three-part fund-raising effort that inspired friendly intradepartmental competition and rekindled a rivalry with the University of Pittsburgh’s physical therapy department.

Launched when the 32 second-year physical therapy students challenged the 31 first-year physical therapy students to see who could donate and raise the most money in eight days, the competition subsequently expanded to include physical therapy faculty and staff, and, ultimately, the University of Pittsburgh’s physical therapy department.

“I think each class originally hoped to raise about $1,000,” Marty Fontenot, a doctoral precandidate who is originally from Louisiana and is president of UD’s second-year physical therapy class, said. “But, the spirit of helping and giving really took off.”

According to Fontenot, first-year students raised $2,300, second-year students raised $1,800, and a matching challenge put to faculty and staff members brought the grand total to $6,100.

“What we found when we went to family and friends and community members in the hopes of soliciting donations was that people were very happy to give,” Fontenot said. “So many people had the ‘I’ve been meaning to do this’ mentality, and this gave them an avenue.”

What was also heartening, Fontenot said, was the speed at which the challenge grew. “We raised all this money in eight days, and in two more days we got $2,000 more from physical therapy faculty and staff,” he said.

Spurred by success, the students now are securing a matching amount from the physical therapy department at the University of Pittsburgh--an institution chosen, Fontenot said, because its physical therapy department ranks with UD’s.

“The choice seemed natural, because many of UD’s physical therapy faculty went to Pittsburgh and because its physical therapy department is ranked first in the nation for research, and second in the nation overall. They’re doing their own challenge, but were interested in participating in this one as well.”

All the money collected, Fontenot says, will be sent directly to the New Orleans chapter of the American Red Cross.

“When we thought about what we could do to help and decided to spearhead an initiative, this seemed the most direct way to help the most people,” Fontenot said.

Article by Becca Hutchinson

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