Mason Cru hosting 'Love South Sudan' event in the HUB Thursday [VIDEO]

Lindsey Grathwol talks to C2M about tomorrow's "Love South Sudan" event. This video is also posted on the YouTube channel (Jake McLernon).

The humanitarian aid project, Love South Sudan, begins tomorrow morning, Thursday, Oct. 20, in the HUB (formerly SUB II) ballroom.

The event, beginning at 9 a.m. and lasting until 6 p.m., is being hosted by Mason Cru and the Global Aid Network. Anyone interested in volunteering at the event is encouraged to drop by throughout the day. No prior sign-up or registration is required.

The goal of the project is to help struggling Sudanese families create sustainable farming for themselves and their communities.

Mason students, faculty and staff are all invited to help create and package 54,000 harvester packs to send to South Sudan. The harvester packs are envelopes enclosed with a variety of vegetable seeds.

Lindsey Grathwol, a senior communications major helping to organize the event, sat down with C2M’s Jake McLernon and spoke about the event tomorrow.

Grathwol said the Mason community should consider their good fortunes as American citizens and take the initiative to help struggling communities like South Sudan.

“We’re so fortunate here in America to have the things that we do and the money to spend to help other communities in need,” Grathwol said.

Mason Cru Director Brett Miller said they are hoping for and expecting around 1,000 people to help at the event, but since no registration is required, it is hard to give a clear estimate.

T-shirts are also being sold for $20 to help raise money for project materials. Each t-shirt purchased for $20 will effectively pay for 40 harvester packs.

Miller says around 300 t-shirts have been sold. T-shirts can still be purchased tomorrow and Miller expects they will continue to be sold for a couple of weeks following the event.

According to Miller, as students join the effort throughout the day tomorrow, orientations will be held every half hour with basic instructions on how to package the seeds.

“They’ll get quick instruction on how to pack the seeds since we’re using an assembly line process,” said Miller.

Following the event Thursday, the Global Aid Network will facilitate the shipment and distribution of the harvester to packs to the communities in South Sudan.