My Philanthropist – Sharon Crary

Philanthropy literally means love of people. Most people just think of rich people donating money when they think of philanthropy. My philanthropist, Sharon Crary, thinks it's more about spreading awareness than anything. She has certainly raised awareness and funds for St. Jude's Children's Home and St. Mary's Hospital-both in Uganda. She has also been involved in CTEP-Community Technology Enhancement Program-here in Putnam County.

Crary, a biochemistry professor at DePauw, first went over to Uganda in 2000 and has gone back numerous times since then. She went back this summer and was glad to see the orphanage's new school that was built, thanks to all the raised funds. In 2002 she held the first annual fundraising event in New York. About $20,000 is raised each year at the gala, and all of it goes to the children's home. The past two years it has been hosted at a Brooks Brothers store. The store provides refreshments, and donated items are raffled off for the cause. Brooks Brothers has a shopping discount that night, too, and 10% of those proceeds go to St. Jude's. About 20 others work with Crary on spreading awareness of the cause and organizing the event.

Crary's work at the hospital is less structured. It is a huge hospital, and there are non-profit organizations in both Canada and Italy. She hopes to start one in the United States too. It is unsafe in Northern Uganda, so most people live in refugee camps. This means the patients hardly have any money to pay for medical care, and the hospital doesn't want to charge them because they can't pay. So, it is run almost entirely out of donations. Crary wrote a nomination letter for an award given to hospitals. If St. Mary's Lacor had won, they would have gotten additional funds. Even though another hospital won, Crary says that she's glad to have nominated the hospital because awareness was spread all the same.

Crary's work for CTEP has been less extensive, but important nonetheless. CTEP distributes refurbished computers to those in need in the Greencastle community, as well as other places. In fact, this summer, Crary brought four laptops to pre-med students at the Lacor hospital to help with their studies. She is amazed at how much of the program the DePauw students run. She says that in her work for CTEP she mostly answered questions and helped support the operations.

In conclusion, Sharon Crary fits the very definition of philanthropist. If

philanthropy is to show your love of people, then the opposite is to fear people. Sharon Crary was not afraid to help those people who needed her. Not at all.