HAVEN Free Clinic’s hosts 10th annual ¡ANDA! 5K fundraiser
On Oct. 6, the HAVEN Free Clinic held its 10th annual ¡ANDA! 5K fundraiser, raising over $40,000 in donations.
On Oct. 6, the HAVEN Free Clinic held its 10th annual ¡ANDA! 5K fundraiser, raising over $40,000 in donations.
The fundraiser provides up to 70 percent of the clinic’s annual budget, making it an essential source of funding to ensure the clinic’s ability to offer free healthcare services to residents and refugees in the Greater New Haven area.
“My favorite moment was at the start of the race. Seeing the crowd of community members gathered for the 5K was a powerful reminder of HAVEN’s reach, across and beyond the Yale community,” Olivia Ang-Olson SPH ’25, the executive director of HAVEN, told the News. “It reinforced just how much local support there is for increasing healthcare access, and it was great to see everyone come together for that purpose.”
HAVEN Free Clinic is unique in its model, since it is entirely student-run with a mission to provide healthcare access to uninsured patients and their families. The funds raised during the ¡ANDA! 5K go directly toward supporting the clinic’s operations, including primary care, specialty services and health education programs.
According to Laure Zhang SOM ’27, the Finance and Development lead director as well as the co-lead of the HAVEN 5K Sponsorship Committee, months of preparation of volunteers go into organizing the event.
According to Zhang, setting up for the event involves detailing logistics, locking down the volunteers and conducting a mass outreach for sponsorships. Additionally, event organizers work with Yale’s graduate schools to market the event.
“This year, we’ve received support from many local stores and corporations, and it was exciting to see how the community came together to support this event,” Zhang told the News.
About two or three weeks out from the event, organizers set up the volunteer schedule, recruit for volunteers and ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities for the day.
Nisarg Shah SOM ’26, another Executive Director of the HAVEN Free Clinic, further acknowledged the effort involved.
“The annual 5K fundraiser is the biggest fundraising event for the HAVEN Free Clinic, and a ton of work goes into it,” Shah said. “We’ve had a tough time fundraising ever since COVID, so it was amazing to see such great participation and over $40K raised this year. Overall, we’re just very grateful for the dedication shown by our volunteers at HAVEN, as well as the support from the Yale and New Haven community.”
The HAVEN Free Clinic is located at the Yale Physicians Building, 800 Howard Ave.
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