Five in five

Update (Bruce Bottomley Photo) Camille Outerbridge and Oro Tobore were among the dozens of volunteers who collected donations for 5-in-5, a fundraiser that aimed to collect $5,000 for Haiti disaster relief in five minutes. Although falling short of the goal, organizer Selina Cajolais was delighted to raise more than $1,800 among the people who work and learn in the Rowe Management Building. "We wanted to show people that it doesn't take a lot of time or a lot of money from any one person to make a huge difference in the lives of others," says Ms. Cajolais, a part-time management student.

Ms. Cajolais: “It may be just $5 or your coffee money, but it shows that, wow, together we can make a big difference.”(Bruce Bottomley Photo)

A few weeks ago, Selina Cajolais woke up in the middle of the night with the words “five in five” racing around her brain.
 
A part-time management student and Dal staffer, she puzzled out the meaning of the words and decided she would raise $5,000 to a worthy cause in five minutes. It wouldn’t be until the next day, however, when word that an earthquake had devastated Haiti, that she discovered her cause. Haiti, obviously. The Canadian Red Cross, specifically.
 
“I don’t think I got back to sleep that night,” says Ms. Cajolais, the single mother of a 10-year-old girl. “I just stayed there and tried to figure it all out.”
 
Five-in-five takes place Tuesday, Feb. 2 from 11:20 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. On all five floors of the Rowe Building, volunteers will be standing by to collect donations. The goal is to raise $5,000.
 
“The idea is that people will come out of the classrooms or their offices, drop their money in the bucket and they’re done,” says Ms. Cajolais, administrative secretary in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “It may be just $5 or your coffee money, but it shows that, wow, together we can make a big difference.”
 
A student in Professor Ed Leach’s Management Organizational Issues class (MGMT 1001), she credits/blames Dr. Leach for her insomnia.
 
“He’s so encouraging and he makes you think,” she says, with a laugh. She sends out thanks to her classmates who are helping her out.