Pasta, pies and cookies greeted students who braved the cold to attend "Feast for a Dream," a charity potluck hosted by Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority Friday night.
The potluck dinner, organized entirely by undergraduates, was held to raise awareness for Dance for a Dream, an event coordinated by Dartmouth Medical School students. Both events will benefit the charity Village Health Works.
The charity is working to create a health clinic in the village of Kigutu in Burundi, a country that borders Rwanda and shares many of the same ethnic conflicts.
Many of the Greek organizations on campus along with the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health, the Nathan Smith Society and Dartmouth Medical School students contributed to the potluck dinner. The meal was free to students, but DASH and cash donations were suggested.
The potluck dinner was well attended and raised about $825, according to Ben Robbins '08, one of the organizers of the event.
Labels such as "Psi U's Psychedelic Wings" and "Chi Heorot's Brownies" were affixed to donations to recognize the contributing organizations. Students were allowed to eat and drink their fill of food and beverages.
The idea for the charity potluck dinner came up during an undergraduate meeting of Dance for a Dream two weeks ago. Robbins attended a Dartmouth Medical School meeting that was planning for Dance for a Dream and helped them get in contact with many other campus organizations.
Eventually they decided to host an event that "would bring together Dartmouth students and community members," DMS student Emmy Rubin said.
Robbins said that Village Health Works was chosen as the beneficiary of the first Dance for a Dream event because of the immediate application of the funds.
"It will do direct good," he said, saying that all funds go towards building the clinic.
Village Health Works was started by Deogratias Niyizonkiza DMS '08, who moved to America from Burundi to escape the conflict there. Niyizonkiza left the medical school to concentrate fully on his charity.
Second-year DMS student Kris Sherwood, a volunteer for Village Health Works, visited Burundi during the summer of 2006.
Sherwood said that while he's not sure whether his medical career will lead him to Africa, he wants to continue helping with the charity organization.
"After being there, I couldn't not participate in the project," he said.
The Dance for a Dream event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 17, from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Hopkins Center.
The all-day event will feature local dance teachers holding free classes for Dartmouth and the surrounding community during the day and a deejayed dance for students at night.
The idea was started when Rubin and Kaytee Welsh, both second year DMS students, decided they wanted to create something concrete for the medical students to get involved in.
