In the wake of tragedy at the Boston Marathon, Boston University students and alumni are organizing various community service projects, including a 5K race, fundraisers and other services, to help those in need as the city recovers.
The Towers Residence Hall Association is sponsoring a 5K race set for Monday at 2:50 p.m. on the Esplanade — exactly one week after the bombing — called #RunForBoston, said Towers Floor Representative Samantha Maloney.
“It will help students to be able to be around each other, to be together to cope with what is going on and to celebrate the fact that we are still here and we can keep moving on,” Maloney, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said.
Maloney said while the race is free of charge, there will be a donation table to support The One Fund, which was set up by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick to assist those affected by the bombings at the finish line of the Marathon’s 117th installment.
“We just want to give everyone the opportunity to come together and to try to help in any way that we can,” Maloney said.
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Catherine Cattley delivered boxes of cosmetics to women who were victims of the marathon bombings at Boston Medical Center Thursday through an organization called Little Luxuries.
Cattley, who is Little Luxuries’ director of hospital relations, said the organization’s purpose is to bring cosmetics and skincare products to ill and injured patients.
“We wanted to make sure that, no matter what happens to these women, they know that they are still beautiful and that the city is still supporting them,” Cattley said.
Vinny Squillace, a 2011 CAS graduate, said he worked with a group of alumni after the bombings to create a Facebook page called BUnited for alumni across the country to support for students on campus.
“We developed it with the Facebook page as a content hub, but across Instagram, Twitter and Vine, if you search for the hashtag [#BUnited], there are multiple people using it,” Squillace said.
BUnited has worked with student groups on campus such as I Embrace You, he said.
“In any tragic circumstance, you need to know that other people are there,” Squillace said. “You need to know that those other people are able to band together and be there as a team.”
Emma Walters, president of I Embrace You, said the student group collaborated with BUnited to plan a large “Free Hug Friday” at Marsh Plaza on the Friday after the bombing. The plan was canceled due to the citywide shelter-in-place order, but is scheduled to take place April 26.
I Embrace You also formulated an idea for a chalkboard project with BUnited for the week after the bombing, Walters said, in which students could finish the phrase “Boston is …” on CAS classroom chalkboards.
“Some people wrote ‘strong,’ [some wrote] ‘my home away from home,’ [some wrote] ‘it’s beautiful,’” Walters, a CAS sophomore, said. “A lot of people wrote in different languages, which was really cool. It was a place for people to write adjectives or nouns that they think Boston represents.”
Chelsey Kelly, president of the BU Alumni Chapter of Washington, D.C. and a 2004 School of Education graduate, said the group is working with the Massachusetts chapter of the National Conference of State Societies on a fundraiser.
The fundraiser will take place on Monday night at Hamilton’s Bar in Washington, she said. The bar will offer $20 bottomless drafts of Sam Adams Summer Ale with half of the proceeds going to The One Fund.
Visitors will also be able to donate to the memorial scholarship fund established by BU to honor first-year graduate student Lingzi Lu, who was killed in the bombings, Kelly said.
Kelly said she hopes the fundraiser will help people feel more connected to the city, to BU and to the victims.
“We can’t go to Boston,” she said. “… But we can try to help with money to make sure that the people that got hurt are taken care of and don’t go into major debt and recover. And we can send, obviously, our thoughts and prayers to Boston right now.”
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