Students Will Bash Car to Raise Money for Haitian Development

It may not be the most conventional fundraiser, but the new student-founded Global Haiti Initiative (GHI) headquartered at Florida State University will allow participants to pay a fee to slam president and founder Jesse O’Shea’s old car with sledgehammers.

The car bash to raise money for GHI will be held on Friday, Nov. 20, at 5 p.m in front of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, in Heritage Grove. O’Shea has donated his old car to the cause. Global Haiti Initiative, started earlier this year, is an intercollegiate clearinghouse for different development programs in Haiti.

“By creating progressive sustainable change, the Global Haiti Initiative will transform compassion into action while addressing the social and economic problems in Haiti,” said O’Shea. “While striving to improve the overall quality of life, we hope the Global Haiti Initiative will also infuse a new aura of mutual cooperation and partnership within the non-profit organization community.”

The recently established service organization plans to go on trips multiple times a year to Haiti in efforts to help the country socially and economically. Its first trip to build a school and establish an educational program for children is in the planning stages. GHI also works with other service organizations to bring about change. The money from the car bash fundraiser will go toward an effort by the group Planting Peace, which goes to Haiti to treat children suffering from diseases caused by worms.

Jesse O’Shea, is the younger brother of former Florida State University Student Government President and Rhodes Scholar Joe O’Shea. He hopes to have expanded the efforts of GHI to 50 universities by the end of the first operating year.