Pizza For Haiti Nets $325 For Partners In Health, Thanks To Kerry Fisher & Chris Lamprecht

Pizza Loving Philanthropists Chris Lamprecht and Kerry Fisher

As you may remember, when Haiti got its ass kicked I felt compelled to help out.  So I created the Pizza For Haiti Challenge, which offered a free pizza date at Homeslice to the person who donated the most to Partners In Health, the amazing organization started by Paul Farmer featured in the stunning book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

I only expected to raise about $50 total, but Chris Lamprecht gave $50 right after I tweeted about the event.  Later, Kerry Fisher hit back with $100.  As the contest drew to a close, Chris came back with another $50 donation.  So they both tied with $100 total, and I took both of them to Homeslice to split the winnings.

I asked them why they donated so much through me, and they said they wanted to donate anyway and the pizza bribe gave them a good excuse.  It wasn’t like they wouldn’t have donated anyway, but this helped seal the deal.  I also asked why either one of them didn’t donate one extra dollar to put them over the other Price-Is-Right style, but neither had the desire to crush a competitor based on a negligible amount.

Kerry works in fundraising at UT, so she’s always on the lookout for interesting philanthropic endeavors.  She’s really interesting.  On a whim, Kerry signed up to host a triathlete from New Zealand who was competing in the Austin triathlon.  They had fun together, and she off-handedly told him that if he or his friends ever passed through town again they would have a place to stay.  “Well actually…” he said, thus beginning a period of periodic squatting by various New Zealand triathletes in her home for weeks on end.  It was a great deal.  They pulled her weeds and such, and she took them to the HEB and told them why they shouldn’t be so excited about competing in Des Moines.  She lived in New Zealand for a year after college, and found the country and its citizens lovely.  Which is good, because it sounds like half the country has crashed on her couch.

Upon hearing that Kerry worked at UT, Chris told a story about creating a computer program as a student there called “Class Grabber”.  He figured out a way to ping the registrar’s site many times a second so subscribers could claim an opening in a desired class the second it became available.  He eventually expanded to neighboring schools as well, but the arms race eventually became too much.  It was great to hear him tell the story though, I love tales of young punks outsmarting stodgy institutions.

I bought a pitcher of beer and ate an eggplant sub so Kerry and Chris could enjoy the pizza they earned.  We had a really nice time, I always enjoy watching conversations graduate from stilted to comfortable as beer and pizza get consumed.

Thanks to Jodi, Brian and Jeff for their donations as well.  Even though y’all didn’t win, Haiti won.  Partners in Health is an amazing organization, and the $325 is a little more than the average monthly earnings of five Haitians, so I feel confident that the money can make a difference.

Cost: $26.50
Total this year: $341.50