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Chicago Booth’s student-led Latin America Business Group (LABG), working with students at the University of Chicago Law School and Harris School of Public Policy, raised more than $21,000 to aid victims of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February.
The university-wide fundraiser “Chicago Helps Chile” far exceeded the original goal of $5,000.
“We were convinced that our small effort was going to contribute to the relief of the personal and material losses of thousands of Chileans,” said LABG co-chair Eduardo Perez, a dual-degree student in the Full-Time MBA Program and at the Harris School of Public Policy.
Perez, with fellow Chilean co-chairs Oscar Boettiger and Christian Diaz, drove LABG’s side of the one-week campaign.
Setting up tables at Harper Center at the Hyde Park campus and Gleacher Center in downtown Chicago, LABG solicited the Booth community, which responded as part of the nearly 400 university students, faculty and staff who gave $10,206.
The fundraiser also received donations on its website and $11,500 from University of Chicago alumni in Chile.
“Chicago Helps Chile” continued a strong relationship between the country and the university, said Perez. Donations raised by Chicago students were given to “Chile Ayuda a Chile,” an initiative coordinated by the country’s leading social organizations that collected $85 million in relief by the end of March.
— Kate Fratar