The newly formed Friends of the Orphans (FOTO) club at Notre Dame is sponsoring its first annual Charity Denim fundraiser Tuesday to aid in providing health care to a Honduran orphanage.
FOTO is a U.S.-based organization that includes regional branches around the country and university clubs. The organization is committed to financially supporting the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH) orphanages in Latin America and the Caribbean, but the Notre Dame chapter of FOTO is focusing its efforts on supporting one of nine NPH orphanages in Honduras and, more specifically, the Holy Family Surgery Center in Honduras.
The event — which will take place from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the LaFortune Ballroom — will bring more than 700 pairs of last season's designer jeans to students to purchase at 40 to 60 percent off the original prices, courtesy of Charity Denim.
Brand names available include Seven for All Mankind, Joe's Jeans, Hudson Jeans, True Religion and others. Anthropologie tops will also be sold at discounted prices.
This is the first Charity Denim event at Notre Dame, but Saint Mary's College has employed Charity Denim to support its annual Dance Marathon for the past three years.
"No one at Notre Dame really knew about the Charity Denim event at Saint Mary's because it wasn't publicized that well," Saint Mary's senior and FOTO vice-president Tricia Daly said. "I called Charity Denim about having them come to Notre Dame, and they were really excited about bringing the event here."
Charity Denim is a nonprofit organization that buys and sells last season's designer jeans at discounted prices. They allot some profit from each pair of jeans sold directly to FOTO.
Daly also said Charity Denim provides the jeans, dressing rooms, mirrors, music and payment processing machines as long as FOTO publicizes and obtains a space for the event.
At the end of the event, Charity Denim will write a check to FOTO so the club will immediately know how much money they raised.
"FOTO will make about eight to 10 dollars per pair of jeans sold," Daly said. "Our goal is to raise over $1,000, and we ultimately want to see how many surgeries we can provide for children in the orphanage."
Funds raised at the event will go directly to the Holy Family Surgery Center in Honduras. The center — founded by Daly's parents Peter and Lulu Daly — is located on-site at an NPH orphanage and it is committed to providing inexpensive surgeries to orphans who normally would not receive medical care for minor injuries.
"Health care in Honduras is still in its developing stages, so we want to do anything we can do to provide healthcare for children," Daly said. "The system is so congested that orphans are put on the back burner and don't have opportunities to receive health care."
The Holy Family Surgery Center can provide a single surgery for just $150, whereas the same surgery could cost thousands of dollars in the U.S. Thus, several surgeries will be provided if FOTO reaches its fundraising goal during the Charity Denim event, Daly said.
Daly and her brother Michael, a junior, started FOTO at Notre Dame this year to help expand their parents' efforts in Honduras that began 18 years ago. Daly said they wanted to continue the rich service tradition established by Notre Dame and Saint Mary's. The club hopes to hold annual Charity Denim events in the future.
"We're really looking forward to the event because it's a fun way to raise money for a good cause, and we're hoping to draw a large crowd," Daly said. "Our motto for the event is ‘Do good, look good.'"
The club will charge a $1 entrance fee for the event, and tickets will be sold for a raffle of a free pair of jeans. Charity Denim will provide men's sizes 28 to 38 and women's sizes 23 to 32, and there is a return policy on all purchases.
