Track team drives to help Haiti

 With the devastation in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti present on nearly everyone’s minds in recent days, the UAlbany track and field team decided to do their best to aid a country in dire need. Lead by its two Haitian members, the track team collaborated with Chapel House to hold a clothing drive last week to help those in need in the country.
   In response to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that happened on January 12th, sprinter Alie Beauvais and staff assistant Raphael Jean-Baptiste, both of whom have family in the country, led the charge to start the drive which began last Tuesday and concluded on Friday.
   “The clothing drive is something that I feel we can help immediately affect because money is kind of sketchy,” Beauvais said. “You never know where the money is going to go and the people of Haiti might not be able to get the money right away. But with clothing, that’s something that’s easy and something can directly affect a person’s life.”
   Throughout the week collections at Chapel House saw countless contributions from both the UAlbany campus along with the surrounding Albany area. The collection asked for t-shirts, shorts, pants and other lightweight clothing due to the warm-weather climate of Haiti and the drive accumulated many stacks of clothing in the House’s hallways.
   Seeing the destruction in the country of their roots has given both Beauvais and Jean-Baptiste distractions that both did not anticipate coming into the spring semester.
   “All I’ve been thinking about is trying to help. What I’m concentrating on right now is how can I contribute and how can I help people better their lives in Haiti and what can I do that can directly affect someone’s life,” said Beauvais, who represented Haiti at the Central American and Caribbean Games in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles.
   Beauvais’ family has been able to get in contact with only one of his grandmothers who live in the country along with numerous uncles and aunts, while still awaiting word about his other grandmother.
   Jean-Baptiste, a four-year sprinter for UAlbany before joining the staff while working on his masters, has been able to get in contact with nearly all of his family that lives in Haiti, however Jean-Baptiste knows that his grandmother’s house was mostly destroyed due to the collapse of her neighbor’s house onto hers..
   “It’s been tough,” Jean-Baptiste said. “There’s been moments where I’ve actually shed tears but I’ve been relieved knowing everyone is okay. Everybody that I know is fine but I know that there is a lot of damage in certain areas.”
   Jean-Baptiste said an important part of being able to focus on his current obligations is an athlete’s ability to tune out outside factors.
   “I always felt that my family would be alright so that helped me get through the day. I check on the news and hear all that stuff but once I’m at work I’m able to focus. Luckily for me it happened before classes actually started. (If not) I probably would’ve been checking the news instead of doing my homework,” Jean-Baptiste said.
   Both Beauvais and Jean-Baptiste said there is currently a plan in the works to create t-shirts that would be sold both around campus and at basketball games, with proceeds contributing to the aid effort. According to Beauvais, the plan for the shirts, one of which will have a design featuring the phrase “Help Haiti” across the front, is for them to be sold for $15.
   The plan to get the collected clothes down to the affected people of the country was in the discussion stages as of last weekend, however Chapel House was working with the Albany Diocese to see if they had any affiliations to transport the clothing.