Alumni hold vigil for student
By TIM LOGAN
Senior Staff Writer
While investigators search for missing Peace Corps volunteer Walter Poirier in Bolivia, members of the Notre Dame community in the United States are getting together to pray for and remember the 2000 graduate.
The Notre Dame Club of Boston is holding a prayer vigil this evening in the city's Copley Square. Father John McCarthy, a 1948 alumnus, will lead the service, which will also include reflections from those who knew Poirier and a letter from University President Father Edward Malloy.
The service was organized in efforts to give Notre Dame alumni in Boston a chance to come together and pray for Poirier.
"We decided we should do something in the city, after work hours, so everyone could make it," said Bryan Furze, president of the club.
Poirier is from Lowell, Mass., a city about 40 miles north of Boston. More than 200 people attended a service there on April 11.
Closer to the Dome, Zahm and Keenan Halls are organizing a fundraising drive in Poirier's name. The dorms are asking other halls to take up collections for Dismas House, a halfway house where students live with ex-convicts. Poirier lived there his senior year, after being president of Zahm Hall briefly at the end of his junior year.
The campaign is trying to raise $15,000 for renovations to Dismas House, by the end of the week. Hall staff are organizing the campaign in each dorm.
"From what I hear, it's going well so far," said Chris Martin, Keenan Hall president.
Students will be taking donations for the drive on Thursday in North Dining Hall and Friday in South Dining Hall.
All News Stories for Tuesday, April 24, 2001
