Uma Praises Student fundraiser for Liberia

It's easy to fall into the habit of regarding fundraising efforts of high school students as motivated only the desire to put something noteworthy on college applications. But that's cynicism talking. Many school age kids are interested in more than making the Ivy League.

Eugenie Iseman is a good example. Her effort to raise money to build a medical clinic in Karnplay, a village in the African nation of Liberia, stands out for the amazing amount of money she raised — $300,000. That kind of money doesn't come from 17-year-olds looking to score easy community development points.

Last summer, Eugenia and a few of her friends visited Liberia as part of an International Rescue Committee project. They visited clinics that had no running water or electricity. She and her friends saw pregnant women who had "walked miles to give birth in a dirty room with very little medical attention," Eugenia told a reporter from The New York Daily News.

Since her visit to Liberia, Eugenia and 17 of her friends from Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side have been busy organizing a fundraising event they named Student Rescue: N.Y.C. Students Rebuilding Liberia. The group helped the IRC set up a star-spangled fundraising event at popular nightclub Butter this week that was attended by Uma Thurman, Russell Simmons, singer Trey Songz and George Rupp, former president of Columbia University, who runs IRC.

“Eugenie, I commend you for bringing us here to tonight,” Thurman said in a speech that praised the girl's work, according to an article on the fete by bloomberg.com.

Of course, if you want to raise big money that comes in from tables sponsored at $2,500 a pop, it helps to come from well-connected family headed by a hedge-fund running father. Along with actress Thurman, also in attendance were Tom Brokaw, Kevin Bacon and Abigail Disney, of the famous Disney family.

"We can dream of a better world, but if there is no opportunity, then it's impossible," said Ayouba Swaray, a Liberian native who is attending high school in New York with aid from IRC, to a reporter at the event.

Uma Thurman praised Eugenia Iseman's fundraising efforts. Photo courtesy of Bloomberg PLC.