With Thanksgiving around the corner, some students are looking for a way to lend a helping hand around the Valley, which can be done through PROJECT C.U.R.E. (Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment).
The nonprofit organization, founded in 1987, is reaching out to ASU students looking to volunteer.
C.U.R.E. has centers located in four major cities, including Tempe, for sorting and distributing donated medical supplies to be shipped to third-world countries.
The project delivers supplies to more than 120 countries, including Africa, China and North Korea, said Douglas Jackson, president and CEO of PROJECT C.U.R.E.
“We’ve saved thousands, maybe millions, of peoples’ lives all over the world,” he said.
Student volunteer and bioengineering sophomore Brendan Mulligan has been volunteering at PROJECT C.U.R.E. for more than a year.
“We do a lot of cool, exciting stuff,” Mulligan said. “We get a lot of hands-on work.”
New volunteers get oriented with the organization through a video and tour of the facilities. After orientation, volunteers who work in the sorting center, located on 2115 E. Cedar St., Tempe, begin their tasks sorting the materials, Executive Director Michael Medoro said.
“Our volunteers will come and pull all of these items [in donated boxes] out and they’ll sort them into all of the 150 unique categories,” he said.
PROJECT C.U.R.E. sends out about two to three containers per week with about 40 pallets in each container, Jackson said.
“There’s about $400,000 worth of stuff in a container,” he said.
The project collected $37 million, or 94 containers, in wholesale supplies during last year’s efforts, according to Jackson’s biography on ASU’s Cannon Leadership Program Web site.
“If everything goes as planned, we’ll grow by another 20 percent this year,” he said. “We’ll do probably 150 containers.”
Jackson, who was a lawyer, took over the business after realizing his father — who started PROJECT C.U.R.E. after visiting a health clinic in South America that had next to nothing — needed help.
“He was in a place where he really needed help and I thought that maybe I had some business skills that would apply to his efforts,” Jackson said. “So I told him I would help him for six months.”
Jackson’s six months turned into twelve years, despite the fact he thought he would end up working in investment banking or mergers and acquisitions.
“I couldn’t imagine going back to practicing law now,” Jackson said.
Reach reporter at Katelyn.Bolnick@asu.edu
