Following on from the recent news that the Haiti earthquake could result in a death toll that tops 500,000, it’s easy to understand the desperate need of Haitian relief efforts. Over the last 24-hours the relief effort has stepped up a notch with help coming from all corners of the world, and from people in all walks of life.

Today we hear from USA Today that the Chicago Bulls are going to join UNICEF’s relief efforts, and plan to help Haitian relief efforts for the 2010 earthquake. The team will donate all net proceeds from in-arena auctions and the 50/50 Raffle ticket sales from Friday’s game against the Washington Wizards.

The Chicago Bulls are not stopping there in their Haiti relief efforts, they will also hold public announcements on television, radio, and scoreboard messages that promote the idea of texting “HAITI” to “90999″. This lets people donate $10 to the Red Cross that helps with Haitian relief efforts.

Below this post you can also watch a recent video of President Obama, which he provides an update on Haiti relief operations and the response to the damage caused by the earthquake in Haiti.