UCSB Turkish Student Association hosts fundraisers to help earthquake survivors
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-Members of the Turkish Student Association at the University of California, Santa Barbara stopped by to thank the owner of SADE (Turkish Coffee and Baklava) in Carpinteria.
Ali Uzentepe donated Baklava for a campus fundraiser that raised $1,000 for earthquake survivors.
He plans to make more baklava to donate for the next fundraiser in front of the UCSB library on Thursday at 11 a.m.
The students said his baklava sells out.
Uzentepe even made heart-shaped baklava for Valentine's Day. He is known for turning his coffee sales into an experience that brings customers back.
He has been watching Turkish TV channels constantly to learn more about the earthquake in his homeland.
More than 41,000 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria in an area where thousands of buildings collapsed.
Turkish Student Association President Emre Cikisir isn't from the area hardest hit but wants to help.
" Our main goal is to raise awareness and raise as much money as we can so that we can donate it and help the families that are in need, " said Cikisir, "They are expecting more than 200 thousand affected families. We are all a family."
Turkish Student Association Treasurer Doga Karabey doesn't have family in the area either but said the country has had many quakes, but never this deadly.
"There are 3,000 buildings destroyed, lots of people lost their life savings, their homes this happened at a place in Turkey that there is not developed infrastructure so we are really trying to get all the funds we can to help," said Karabey.
They think the world of Uzentepe who is from Istanbul. For decades he had a Green Card, but he is now a U.S. citizen.
"He was nice enough to give us four or five trays of Baklava for free for us to sell and donate whatever we made off of those," said Karabey.
SADE is a coffee shop that is off the beaten path behind industrial businesses at 4189 Carpinteria Avenue.
The students say people can learn more about donating at ahbap.org
They say you can also follow them in Instagram at Tssa_ucsb
Your News Channel will have more on their efforts tonight on the news.
