JULY 13, 2001
To all those readers who are improv comedy junkies, who take their a capella in pop or doo-wop style, or who just really like to support worthy causes: There’s an event with your name on it. This Saturday, Project HEALTH is holding its Fall Benefit Concert featuring the perenially crowd-pleasing Opportunes, the Pitches and Immediate Gratification Players.
Proceeds from ticket sales will go to Project HEALTH, a national non-profit service organization. Founded in 1996 by a Harvard undergraduate, the organization works to develop and implement projects that work to break the connection between poverty and poor health. Its numerous programs, both hospital and neighborhood-based, bring together the efforts of undergraduate volunteers with the expertise of professional health-care providers and inner-city community leaders. Originally based at sites in Dorchester and Roxbury, the program has since expanded to Providence, New York City and Washington, D.C. About 150 Harvard students currently volunteer; recruiting will begin anew in January.
The concert, eagerly anticipated since scheduling conflicts prevented it last year, exists mainly as a “thank-you to our volunteers, mentors, faculty sponsors and contributors for the work they do,” said Daniel N. Elizondo ’02, coordinator of KidsCare, the in-house fundraising team. The money will go to specific projects to be employed throughout the year, although fund-distribution details haven’t yet been decided.
The Opportunes, no strangers to benefit concerts, are excited to return to this particular show. “We are very happy to be singing for Project HEALTH, [which] we’ve done in the past,” said Opportune Malini D. Sur ’04. And, interestingly enough, he said “there are definitely lots of Project HEALTH-Opportunes connections” — a former member now serves as Public HEALTH’s acting national director.
Tickets $7.50. Available at the Harvard Box Office in the Holyoke Center.