By Michael Tuttle
Union’s School of Pharmacy will host a 3-on-3 basketball fundraiser tournament in the West Jackson Baptist Church gym Saturday, Nov, 20. The cost to participate is $25 per team, with T-shirts as prizes.
Proceeds from the tournament will be used for the pharmacy mission trip to Haiti that will take place Jan. 9 – 15.
In addition to the powerful earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this year, there has also been a recent outbreak of cholera near Port-au-Prince. The cholera outbreak has killed over 337 people and hospitalized over 6,700 others, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Hurricane Tomas also recently hit the country and could worsen the effects of the outbreak.
“The trip itself was actually not complicated,” said Josh Clarke, director of Pharmacy admissions and leader of the trip, in reaction to the outbreak, “As with any mission’s opportunity, we want to make sure we are able to provide the most efficient and best quality care to those who we are going to serve.”
With the spread of cholera, more medicine, as well as different types of other medical supplies, will be needed to best provide for the people in Haiti during the mission trip.
The tournament will help provide money for both the students who are traveling and for the right medicine and supplies that will be required for the trip to be successful.
“There is a great need in the country of Haiti for medical missions, and we are very excited to be able to provide care for those people in need,” Clarke said.
Other fundraising efforts will be conducted to help finance the trip before the pharmacy team leaves in January.
