The devastation from the earthquake in Haiti has many people wondering what they can do to help.

Students and the Fresno community can show their support for the people in Haiti at the Hearts for Haiti Benefit Concert at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Satellite Student Union.

University Student Union (USU) Productions is putting the event on “to give to the Haitian people in their time of need,” Dana Elkins, the spirit coordinator for USU Productions, said.

Local bands JJ Brown & the Q’s, 40 Watt Hype and HR7 will donate their time to play at the concert, which will last between three and four hours.

The event is based on donations, with a minimum requirement of $3 for Fresno State students with a valid ID and $5 for the general public. However, people are encouraged to give what they can, because all proceeds will go to the Central Valley chapter of the American Red Cross.

“It’s showing that a campus does care,” Kayla Singley, a volunteer for USU Productions, said. “It is our campus and our students who are giving back.”

Karen Chisum, the public support officer of the Central Valley chapter of the American Red Cross, said the money from the benefit concert will help fund emergency support for Haiti.

“The money that will be raised will be used to provide clean drinking water, food and shelter,” Chisum said.

Chisum said the Central Valley chapter was happy to support USU Productions with the concert, and eager to see how it turns out.

“We are excited about the event,” Chisum said. “We are very impressed with the students that have come forward in order to support such a worthy cause and help the victims of Haiti.”

Dr. Joaquin Arambula and Tim Miller, who both recently returned from Haiti, will be at the event to discuss their experiences as relief workers, said Darlene Mergillano, the celebrations and festivals coordinator for USU productions.

Arambula and Miller went to Haiti with a group from the Wheelchair Foundation, an international nonprofit organization founded by Kenneth E. Behring in July of 2000. The foundation’s international headquarters are in Danville, Calif.

According to its Web site, the Wheelchair Foundation is “leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities.” The organization strives to deliver a wheelchair to any person who needs, but cannot afford one.

The group from the Wheelchair Foundation delivered several hundred wheelchairs and about 2,000 pounds of antibiotics to different hospitals. Arambula and Miller also worked with traveling clinics, administering medication to patients in different areas of Haiti.

Arambula, a doctor at Selma Community Hospital, said the earthquake victims are in great need of wheelchairs, because many people have had one or more limbs amputated and need a way to get around.

He said the damage from the earthquake was overwhelming.

“The scale of destruction is unparallel to anything I have seen before,” Arambula said.

Miller, a registered nurse in the emergency room at Selma Community Hospital, said helping in Haiti has made him appreciate basic essentials, like clean drinking water, that are so readily available in America.

“You come back with a different perspective on the things [that] you need to make it,” Miller said.

He said the children made the biggest impact on him, and that he hopes people make their donations they will consider how much hardship the children have suffered through.

“The most memorable thing was taking care of the kids that had suffered tremendously,” he said. “Through it all they all still smiled.”

Miller said he hopes he can soon return to Haiti to continue helping.

“I feel blessed that I was able to help a lot of people and a lot of kids, and I hope that their lives are better because of it,” Miller said.

The benefit concert will have a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses. Raffle tickets will be sold for a dollar each, with all of the proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

“There is a wide variety of prizes that people can win,” Singley said.

Nicole Giordano and AJ from local radio station, Y101 will be guest hosts at the benefit concert.

USU Productions will also be placing a donation box in the University Student Union Recreation Center so people can continue to donate after the concert.

“A little goes a long way,” Elkins said.