Poverty awareness group holds charity date auction

from The Wildcat Online

By: Amanda Morris

A charity date auction raised $3,500 last night for Campaign Against Poverty (CAP), a club which aims to eradicate and raise awareness about poverty.

Deema Tabbara, a political science senior and director of the Arizona Students' Association, said she had the idea to CAP last semester, after being inspired by the ONE campaign, an organization whose mission is to beat poverty and AIDS by allocating 1 percent of the U.S. budget toward providing impoverished countries with basic needs.

"We hoped that our first event was a success so we can recruit more members to help us with Poverty Awareness Week," Tabbara said at the auction.

The club's first fundraiser, the date auction, was kicked off with a two-minute video about poverty, accompanied by the song "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer.

Six men and six women from different clubs and honoraries on campus were auctioned off by Charles Wollin, a theatre arts sophomore and the event's master of ceremonies.

The bidding for each contestant started at $10 and included a gift certificate for two to be used at a local restaurant. The highest bidder bid $1300 and won a $200 voucher to be used on any Southwest Airlines flight.

Keven Barker, a business senior and one of the six contestants, said he wanted to participate because he thought it would be a lot of fun and because it was for a good cause.

Tabbara said she hopes the date auction becomes a tradition.

The money raised will serve as start-up funding for the club, which plans to hold a poverty awareness week at the UA.

"I'm glad UA has come together as one community to make the world a better place," said Ezekiel Gebrekidane, a chemistry junior.

Abbas Tuli, a biochemistry senior from Tanzania, said he attended the event because it is good to give back to society.

"Because I come from Tanzania, a Third World country, I think it is important to raise awareness about the poverty in the world and try to combat it as much as possible," he said.