Vassar Haiti Project

Sarah Oliver ’15 and Manny Singh ’15, our Co-VPs of Programming of this year comment on our first event of the year:

  “On Friday, September 21, VHP opened with our first fundraising event of the school year,September Soiree!”, Sarah says. “When Manny and I found out that we were going to be Co-VPs of Programming this year, we decided that a ticketed dinner event early in the year would be a    great way to introduce VHP to our new members and raise money for our expanding education initiative. While the planning was a bit stressful because we didn’t have a committee yet (and we were new at the job!), everything came together perfectly.”

“We had an abundance of delicious donations from Cosimo’s and thanks to Ayo Parker, our fabulous Food Manager, every little food detail, from serving spoons to fruit platters, was taken care of. I’ll admit that the task of recruiting performers so soon in the academic year was daunting, however many people stepped up to the plate and dedicated their time and talents towards the rebuilding of Chermaitre’s Kindergarten. There was much variety in performances, everything from the Barefoot Monkeys to classical piano, and the attendees absolutely adored it all!  The handicrafts were popular; guests were literally buying paper mache right off their tables!”

“I’m still reeling in excitement over how fantastic the September Soiree went!”, Manny Singh ’15, Co-VP of Programming, says. Though there were a couple of glitches on the road to the event, it came together better than I could have ever hoped for at the end. Everyone involved in the event, from performers to helpers, all deserve a round of applause.”

           For the event, Sarah and Manny had two main goals: to introduce freshman to exciting world of the Vassar Haiti Project and to raise funds for the damaged kindergarten building in Cher Maitre. They exceeded both of those expectations – not only did they sell lots and lots tickets, but they got to meet so many new faces interested in joining the project and that latter aspect is simply invaluable.

“This was the first big event of the event of the year and since it wasn’t ever done before,” Manny says. “Sarah and I knew it was quite an undertaking. The weeks leading up to the event were, to put it mildly, hectic – I wasn’t sure if we had enough people to table in the College Center all week or even enough performances for the dinner (and if we didn’t, I even slightly entertained the possibility that it would be me singing for an hour and half; but thank God that didn’t happen). As the event drew closer and closer, pieces started to fall in place and we ended up having to actually turn away performers. People bought tickets for their family members, staff came and a lot more people than we expected showed up at the door.”