As many of you are aware, the Association for India's Development has just concluded a campaign to raise money for survivors of the Jan. 26 earthquake in India. The response to our efforts gives us much hope. In State College, we raised more than $13,000 in 10 days. As of February 9, AID has raised $185,000 nationwide for earthquake relief. Of this, at least $45,000 has been disbursed to nine NGOs in the earthquake-affected region.

We are painfully aware that the money we raised is only a small part of what it takes to rebuild thousands of lives, but the concern of the Penn State community has been truly heartwarming. Several of our volunteers were impressed and touched that even students with very little money and no ties to India stopped on their way to class to express concern and drop a couple of dollars into the collection box.

Our fundraising campaign has convinced us that people do care for others and that caring is not confined to the narrow boundaries of nationality, religion, ethnicity or race.

We wanted to share our hope with the Penn State community and to thank all those who contributed their musical and culinary talents, time, material resources, and, of course, money.