On Mon., Nov. 24, Students of Caribbean Awareness (SOCA) hosted their sixth annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza in Willcox Gym.

The event aimed to raise money for Sickle Cell Anemia awareness and research with 50 percent of all proceeds from the night going to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA).

The extravaganza was cosponsored by DHOSA, CRU, the 8-0-8’s, OLAS, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Members from each organization that cosponsored were present along with non-member Pace Students. In total the event saw roughly 50 guests and raised over $200 for the cause.

Food for this event was donated by Golden Krust and Sofritos of White Plains, as well as by members of DHOSA and OLAS.

Featured speakers throughout the night included SOCA president Melissa Adolphe, Director and Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs, Cornell Craig and Rachel Simon, respectively, and senior psychology major Moley Fahnbulleh who spoke about his own experience after being diagnosed with sickle cell.

“It is hard, and it causes you to grow up very fast…you don’t get to experience your childhood like other people,” said Fahnbulleh. “It shows you how connected you are to other people because you have to be very dependent on others. It’s one of those things that lets you see how deeply connected we are as a human family.”

Later Fahnbulleh spoke on the difficulty associated with finding other “sicklers” like him.

“There aren’t that many of us around that are aware of each other, like you know who’s in your family who might have it, or who might have the trait, but outside of that we have yet to really connect, and that’s one of my dreams, actually, to help contribute to forming a network between sicklers.”

According to the SCDAA, sickle cell anemia is most common in individuals of African decent, specifically people from Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and India.

Sickle cell occurs in 1 out of every 500 African American births and 1 out of every 36,000 Latino births. There are an estimated 100,000 people in the United States living with this disease and millions worldwide.

For more information on Sickle Cell anemia or to get involved with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, visit SickleCellDisease.org.