Muggles for Haiti Unite

by Te-Ping Chen · 2010-01-25 14:25:00 UTC
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In lieu of a real-life Voldemort and dementors to fight, a certain sect of Harry Potter fans has turned its collective energy to campaigning for social justice. In recent years, they've taken action against more 21st-century symbols of villainry, including poverty, global warming and genocide. And over the weekend, these fans -- calling themselves the Harry Potter Alliance -- added another target to their list: natural disasters. Specifically, the earthquake in Haiti.

Hosted by Hogwarts’ Fat Lady and….well, I'm not sure of his name, but at least one guy wearing glasses and simultaneously typing on two computers, HPA's six-hour webcast brought together Harry Potter fans around the world to raise money for relief efforts. It wasn't exactly as watchable as the star-studded Hope for Haiti telethon, or quite as headline-friendly as the kid in the U.K. who recently raised nearly $160,000 for relief by biking around his local park. But this weekend, Harry Potter fans still managed to marshal over $34,000 in donations during the course of their online "Mugglecast.”

All proceeds from the webcast went to Partners in Health, one of the more established aid groups in Haiti (which we've previously written about here). Musical acts during the event included Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, The Remus Lupins, the Ministry of Magic and The Whomping Willows. Also during the webcast, fans had the chance to bid on prizes such as replica slimer from Ghostbusters, signed books from Terry Pratchett, a lightsaber replica and autographed copy of the book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks.

Just a small anecdote to round out your day -- proving, if it needed to be proved, that there's a place for every community to get mobilized in assisting Haiti relief efforts.

Photo Credit: Pixelsior

Te-Ping Chen Te-Ping Chen is a freelance writer and U.S. Truman Scholar whose writing has appeared in the Nation Magazine, the South China Morning Post magazine, Le Soir, and Slate.com.
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