Harvard COOP Donates $140K to Sept. 11 Fund

The Harvard COOP will give a gift of $140,000 to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to benefit victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

The organization raised much of the money through requests that COOP members to donate their annual rebate checks to the fund.

According to the store, 5,500 COOP members donated a total of $57,000. The COOP matched this and also contributed an additional $25,000.

The COOP—which operates as a cooperative—pays a portion of its earnings each year to its members. For the year ending June 30, 2001, members were refunded 5 percent of all purchases they made at the store during the previous year.

Current Harvard and MIT students contributed over 50 percent of the amount donated by all COOP members.

“The events of September 11 made [the COOP] think of some way of helping,” said Allan E. Powell, the COOP’s corporate general manager. “Rebates are not usually made out for large amounts for individuals, so we decided to encourage individuals to donate their rebates.”