Two CU Boulder alum and one senior, Serene Singh and Kelly Galloway, with senior Paula Pulido, have launched the Buffs Together fundraising campaign with the aim to reach $50,000 in donations to be disbursed to students who have been financially affected by COVID-19.

“Being an alumnus, I’m in contact with people who are at CU, friends of mine, people who I worked with, and I was noticing that there was a lot of panic, a lot of stress,” said Singh, a Rhodes Scholar who graduated CU in May 2019.

“Seeing all the heartbreak going on in the world, we all want to do something in our power,” said Galloway, who also graduated in May 2019 and currently lives in Los Angeles where she works for a public relations firm. “We knew we couldn’t change what was happening, but we could help with our given power which is the networks we have, the marketing skills we have.”

The campaign has raised $2,000 so far in the week it’s been running. If the campaign passes the $50,000 mark in a month, the three women are considering extending the campaign.

This comes after CU Boulder announced its own crowdfunding initiative of the same name, pledging to match donations up to $1.6 million for students, faculty and staff. Singh, Galloway and Pulido have said their fundraiser is strictly student-focused.

“We pride ourselves as Buffs on being so diverse,” Singh said. “We have a lot of diversity in terms of experiences, where we come from, how we get to CU Boulder … and right now it’s something we should take into account during a situation like (COVID-19) because it means many people are affected differently.”

The three women are working with the Division of Student Affairs and CU administrators to determine where the money is allocated.

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