University collection helps injured Haitians move on

Pitt said it will try to provide more aid to Haiti by collecting crutches, canes, walkers and… Pitt said it will try to provide more aid to Haiti by collecting crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs.

Steve Zupcic, assistant director of Pitt’s Office of Community Relations, said students and faculty members can drop off their used crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs at the Fifth Avenue entrance of Parran Hall between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 24 and 25.

Volunteers, primarily students in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health and some faculty members, will check the items to make sure they are in good condition.

Workers from Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based aid agency, will also check the items before packaging them and sending them to Haiti.

“This is a way that so many of us, regardless of our skills or financial resources, can relieve the suffering of those injured by the earthquake,” Zupcic said.

Zupcic said he hadn’t seen statistics, so he didn’t know how many people in Haiti needed crutches, canes, wheelchairs and walkers.

He assumed the number would be fairly high, given the destruction that occurred after the magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas early last month.

He said the initial feedback he received about the drive was positive. Zupcic said he had crutches, as did several other administrators.

“Every time you go to an emergency room here, you come back with crutches,” he said.

This newest drive — “Have a Heart for Haiti: Put Your Unused Crutches, Canes, Walkers and Wheelchairs to Work Today!” — is the second major initiative the University has sponsored to provide relief to people living in Haiti.

The University also sponsored an ongoing bucket brigade initiative to collect enough toiletries to fill more than 1,000 buckets for Haitian earthquake victims.