Not Just Another Party

6 Not Just Another Party Jason was reading the newspaper. There were several articles about the recent earthquake near the Pakistan-India border. The massive earthquake caused severe damage. Villages were reduced to rubble, landslides were triggered, and apartment buildings collapsed. The death toll had already reached 40, 000. As many as five million people were home- less and living in freezing temperatures. Countries all over the world were pitching in to help with the disaster relief. For Jason, the earthquake disaster was an incident that hit close to his heart. His family had emigrated from India just a few years earlier. When he saw the effects of the earthquake, he knew he had to do something. His heart ached for the victims of the earthquake and for the survivors. After a sleepless night, Jason came up with an idea. He was going to host a benefit dinner to raise funds for the earthquake disaster relief. It would not be an easy task. The Indian community in Jason's college town was small, but he was sure there was wide concern for the victims.

Jason approached the owners of the small Indian restaurant where he worked part time. They immediately agreed to support him. So Jason began to plan the event. Luckily, his friends were more than willing to pitch in. Jason and a pal from his math class designed the invitation. Then, they brought it to a stationery store that had agreed to print the invitations for free. The invitations were mailed out. Jason and his friends spent hours hanging up posters all around the city. They followed up the invitations by calling local politicians, business leaders, and anyone else who would listen to them. Finally, after a whirlwind few days of planning, the big night arrived. People showed great generosity. The gala raised a lot of money. In addition to the money raised by the dinner itself, many guests brought their chequebooks to make an additional donation to the cause. When it was all over, Jason and his friends counted the money. It was twice what they had originally expected.