Every semester, the University of Memphis’ Theatre Department’s Fred Mertz Association raises funds for AIDS awareness, with the money going to funding, research and grants to combat AIDS. This semester, the group raised $115 through bake sales.
Though the Fred Mertz Association has been around since 1973, they’ve only raised funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS since 1999. They were the first school to help Broadway Cares, an AIDS awareness organization made up of Broadway actors and stage workers.
Alice Berry has been the advisor for the Fred Mertz Association since 1999, and she revealed how much money the association sent along last year.
“There are different officers every year, but I did speak to last year’s officer Kevin Cochran and he believes they sent between $400 and $500 dollars last year to Broadway Cares, though he didn’t know the exact number,” Berry said.
The Fred Mertz Association hosts the fundraisers out of a genuine desire to help AIDS research and in order to maintain a good relationship with Broadway Cares. Berry believes that maintaining support for the acting community is important for those breaking into show business.
“[It’s important] as young actors to be a part of that community, and to support that,” Berry said. “In New York, they actually do big fundraisers for the organization as well.”
It isn’t always bake sales either. Last year donations were taken up at one of the shows the theatre department put on. There aren’t any more fund raising events planned for the year, but the group doesn’t plan on stopping them completely. Berry explained some of the difficulties in arranging fundraisers.
“It’s always up to the school officers as to whether or not we’ll do any fundraising for it,” Berry said. “There may be a couple years in there that we’ve not done [fundraising for Broadway Cares], but for the most part they usually do support that. It always depends on the officers, because they’re theatre students, and students at the U of M. They’re very busy people and they do what their time allows for them.”
