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ELON, N.C. – With baseball season right around the corner, Elon University catcher Michael Melillo should be focused on practicing. But after last week's earthquake, his mind was on those in Haiti. As a college student, he couldn't afford to donate much, so he rallied his teammates to pool their money.

"I saw some footage of some dead bodies on the street on the CNN network, and that image kind of stuck with me, and I felt compelled to try to do something," the 22-year-old said. "We thought we would get a dollar from each player, so we started with our team. Our team was all pumped up about it, loved the idea and it kind of expanded further into North Carolina later that morning and throughout the country later on that day."

The effort expanded dramatically and was named Pinch Hit for Haiti. Since Thursday, more than two dozen schools from all around the country have joined in, raising more than $6,000 for the American Red Cross.

"It's quite simple; if you're a sports team or someone at a college athletics program, you collect money from your individual teams or athletic department, you go to RedCross.org, you donate the money on RedCross.org and they give you a page that tells you exactly how much you donated and serial tracking number,” Melillo said. “And we just ask that you copy that information and e-mail it to us at PinchHitForHaiti@gmail.com so that we can verify that you donated and then we throw you on our map and we track where the money is going.”

Melillo says he is amazed by the outpouring of support from his fellow student athletes and happy to be able to help the Haitian people even though he is thousands of miles away.

"You hear about people down there that you want to help, and Elon gave me the opportunity to create a forum for other athletic programs to join in and use,” he said. “I think that's what is the biggest thing is that we're all starting to feel like we're part of something a lot bigger."

Duke, UNC, Wake Forest University, UNC-Charlotte and N.C. State have all donated to Pinch Hit for Haiti. Colleges from Hawaii, California, South Dakota and Iowa have also donated money.