News Briefs
Charity Dating Auction Tonight
MedLinks will be auctioning off a chance to win a date with students and Institute notables, including President Susan Hockfield, tonight. Twenty students and six faculty members will be auctioned off for the highest bids, with all proceeds going to Tutoring Plus, a Cambridge organization that provides free tutoring to underprivileged middle and high school students. SaveTFP is co-sponsoring the event.
The event will consist of a regular auction for the 20 students, during which emcees of the event will be shouting out bids, said MedLinks President Anupama Bhimavarapu '07. There will be a silent auction for the faculty members.
The faculty members who will be auctioned off are Hockfield, Chemistry Professor Kimberly L. Berkowski, Physics Professor Eric Hudson, Concourse Professor Jeremy M. Wolfe PhD '81, Biological Engineering Professor Linda G. Griffith, and Biology Instructor Megan E. Rokop PhD '04.
The highest bidders for the students will win a date with the auctionee to various places, such as Legal Seafood, Shabu-Zen, and Toscanini's. Each of the faculty members will be hosting a lunch or dinner outing with multiple silent auction winners. Hockfield will go to lunch with six students.
This is the third annual MedLinks dating auction. Every year, the group raises money for a different charity organization. According to Bhimavarapu, the first auction raised $800-$1,000 for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, which offers counseling, medical, and legal assistance to sexually assaulted or abused women. The second dating auction brought in $1,200 for the Antimony L. Gerhardt '04 Endowed Scholarship in Mathematics, in memory of a former MedLink who passed away in November 2005. "To keep the upward trend, our aim for this year is around $1,500," Bhimavarapu said.
—JiHye Kim