See It: The Community being helped

The idea of the benefit concert began in the summer of 2005. After reading the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder I was insired to take action. The book chronicles the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and his organization Partners In Health (PIH). The organization goes to impovershed countried such as Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda, to not only supply medical care, but, to help the local people build their own hospitals and clinics and earn medical degrees in the United States. PIH is also a leader in treating HIV/AIDs and antibiotic resistant TB. I decided to plan a benefit concert after the Live 8 concert took place that same summer. Through my school's student government we planned the concert and raised over $700.00. All the bands that played concert donated their time, the local police department donated two police officers, local pizza restaurants supplied pizza, local grocery stores provided beverages and deserts, and local business purchased specially desgned t-shirts for the concert. This years concert will be in April 4th, and this time will benefit the victims of the Darfur genocide. The NFAid committee has already raised almost $300.00 through the holiday sale of homemade jewlery, handmade ornaments from Africa, and support bracelets. In addition to the concert, we are working on finding a Darfur refugee to speak at our school and building a display of 30,000 paper cranes(a low estimate of the number of lives taken in the genocide). All the money will be donated to a group called Darfur Peace and Development. We hope to raise over $1,000.000 this year.