Bucket Brigade ends, surpasses expectations

Pitt’s Bucket Brigade initiative, an effort to collect personal hygiene items for… Pitt’s Bucket Brigade initiative, an effort to collect personal hygiene items for victims of January’s earthquake in Haiti, ended yesterday after nearly a month of collecting donations.

In the end, Pitt students and Oakland residents shattered expectations by filling more than 1,200 buckets with wet wipes, non-liquid soap, wash cloths, hand towels, toothpaste, toothbrushes and combs. The Pittsburgh-based charity the Brother’s Brother Foundation will ship these buckets to Haiti this week, where they will provide aid to people still living in dirty and dangerous conditions after the earthquake.

“We filled over 20 shipping pallets with donations,” Steve Zupcic, assistant director of Pitt’s Office of Community Relations, said. “There were additional products that couldn’t even fit in all the buckets. This effort was a major success.”

Zupcic said University officials only expected to get 500 buckets-worth of donations, but as February progressed, they had to continually order more, with the total climbing well over 1,000.

“We weren’t sure exactly how much Pitt students would be able to give,” Zupcic said. “We figured to get somewhere around 500, but that proved to be quite a low guess.”

It is vital that the effort to aid Haiti does not taper off in the coming weeks, Zupcic added, as many in the island country are still suffering the effects of the disaster. Tomorrow and Thursday, Pitt will collect gently used crutches, walkers and wheelchairs in an attempt to provide further aid.

“These items are desperately needed in Haiti right now,” Zupcic said. “We’re hoping that anyone with a pair of crutches lying around will be able to donate them, rather than just letting them sit in a closet and eventually get thrown away.”

Students interested in donating these materials are encouraged to drop them off at the Graduate School of Public Health auditorium on March 3 and 4 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.