Pitt National Society of Collegiate Scholars hosts benefit concert

An all-girls rendition of the Backstreet Boys’ hit “Everybody” kicked off the time warp to… An all-girls rendition of the Backstreet Boys’ hit “Everybody” kicked off the time warp to the 1990s Friday night.

The Pitt a cappella group Sounds of Pleasure opened up for “I Love the ’90s,” a benefit concert hosted by Pitt’s National Society of Collegiate Scholars to raise awareness and money for Power Up Gambia. a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing electricity and water to health care facilities in Gambia, the smallest country on Africa’s mainland.

“We’re ’90s children, so it was really entertaining,” said junior Amy Liptak about the 90-minute event.

About 150 people traveled back two decades at the O’Hara Student Center to the tunes from six performances and two presentations that focused on the lack of electricity in Gambian hospitals. The free event raised $311 through donations the group collected at the door to help equip the Bansang Hospital in Gambia with solar panels.

“There are more people in sub-Saharan Africa living without electricity than there are people in the United States,” said Lynn McConville, the executive director for Power Up Gambia, who bused from Philadelphia to attend the NSCS event.

McConville said hospitals in Gambia don’t receive enough electricity, which becomes a problem when blood, vaccines and medications cannot be refrigerated and doctors have to perform procedures by candlelight. Many Gambians have to generate electricity using diesel generators, which often break down.

“The generators fail and the hospitals can’t provide basic services,” McConville said. “People arrive to the hospital in extreme distress and they can’t do anything.”

Kathryn Hall, a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, founded Power Up Gambia in 2006. McConville said that Hall started the organization after volunteering in a Gambian hospital and witnessing patients die because of a lack of electricity.

Gambia is home to five hospitals. The organization has placed solar panels in Sulayman Junkung Hospital and so far, has raised 83 percent of its $120,000 goal to install solar panels at the Bansang Hopsital, according to the group’s website.

“The solar panels generate electricity during the day,” McConville said. “Part of the electricity goes to the hospital and the rest goes to a patter bank so it can be used at night.”

Cassiopeia Roychowdhury, NSCS treasurer, put the event together by contacting the performance groups and figuring out the technology system in the student center.

“We wanted to do something fun to get our name out there,” senior Roychowdhury said. “The club normally doesn’t do stuff like this.”

Other musical guests included C Flat Run, an a cappella group that performed songs by the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys, and the Pitt Ballet Club, which danced to “Everybody Dance Now” by C+C Music Factory. Pitt Women’s Choral Ensemble brought up memories of “The Lion King” with “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” by Elton John.

NSCS chose to donate to Power Up Gambia to bring a new organization onto campus.

Senior Richie Liberatore commended NSCS for committing a night to raise money for the Gambian hospital. He performed “Let Her Cry” by Hootie & the Blowfish and “The Freshmen” by The Verve Pipe as solo acts to keep with the ’90s theme.

“This was eye-opening and worthy of people’s efforts,” Liberatore said. “It was pretty sweet.”