event U of M, Live from
event U of M, Live from Babylon! BY SHANNON HABBA The Chaldean American Student Association (CASA) at the University of Michigan was looking forward to hosting our annual charity event, Live From Babylon. Every year, a different charity is selected to receive 100 percent of the proceeds from the event. This year, HelpIraq was chosen as the recipient: a nonprofit organization committed to supporting persecuted Christians and other minorities in our homeland. HelpIraq directly assists refugees and displaced individuals who are in desperate need of food, shelter, and urgent medical care. CASA put months of planning into this event and gathered copious sponsorships to reach our fundraising goal of ,000, in celebration of our 15th anniversary. Unfortunately, we fell short of our target due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Just a little over a week before our event, we received disappointing news: all U-M student-run events expecting more than 100 attendees were to be cancelled, as mandated by the University of Michigan and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. This was announced when the very first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Michigan. As this situation rapidly evolved, we know that this was the right call to ensure the health and safety of all populations, even though it was disheartening at the time. Instead of focusing on the negative, we decided to focus on the remaining positives that came out of our efforts in planning a successful event. We have been inundated with support from both our members and our sponsors, and we are so grateful for the opportunity we were given to highlight the wonderful work that HelpIraq does. We raised just over ,200 in monetary donations! In addition to these generous gifts, we were grateful to have our venue donated by Joe Kouza at Club Above in downtown Ann Arbor and DJ services volunteered by Vin Amori for two years in a row! Other event spotlights include graciously donated raffle prizes to auction off, pizza by Joe’s Pizza and Domino’s Pizza, photo booth services by Diamond Smiles, and snapchat filters by Do You Filter. Though this event never happened, we are beyond thankful for all of the support we have received. We still consider this process a success, just without our big finish. It is a beautiful opportunity to see members of the Chaldean community and other communities coming together to support an amazing cause. We are thankful for the opportunity to give back to our community through HelpIraq, and are confident that, when this current crisis passes, our organization will continue to aid our people around the world in any way that we can. Above: Executive Board, left to right: Shannon Habba (co-president), Selena Khammo (community service chair), Anthony Karana (social chair), Sesilia Kammo (publicity chair), Marissa Esshaki (fundraising chair), Fayth Kakos (co-president), Katelin Yaldo (secretary), Chris Hamama (treasurer) Top of page: University of Michigan CASA 2019-20 38 CHALDEAN NEWS APRIL 2020
APRIL 2020 CHALDEAN NEWS 39
