You can't expect to stop a war with one event. However, every little contribution, however minimal it may seem, can help. Eventually, all the little things will come together, and that is how change happens.
It was and continues to be incredibly inspirational.
Our inspiration was in two parts: The first was the viewings of IC at our campus. This was the catalyst for interest and desire to help at OCU. The second was an event called Creative Leaps in which we were inspired to think creatively about our classes and lives. It was in the Creative Leaps discussion groups period that a classmate and I heard about another campus efforts to integrate arts into campus life. We thought it was a great idea to not only integrate art, but to help others.
The easiest thing to do is to look at a big problem and feel overwhelmed by it. No, you can't expect to fix the world with one fundraiser. No, you can't expect to stop a war with one event. However, every little contribution, however minimal it may seem, can help. Eventually, all the little things will come together, and that is how change happens. If you don't have the means to do more than email the site link to friends, you are still helping. Don't wait for others to pick up the reigns; do it yourself. Everyone can help, and everyone can contribute somehow. And eventually, we can change the world.
A few months ago, the IC team came to my college campus at Oklahoma City University and had a showing of the movie. It left quite an impression, and a few weeks later, my honors sociology class began to work on a project in which we would put on a recurring event to benefit different charities. The project was geared towards furthering arts integration on our campus as well as helping others. We called our event "Discover", and we decided to choose a different theme for each event. For our first event, which took place April 20th, we chose Invisible Children as our theme. We lined up live performances by dancers, singers, musicians, and actors from our school on our centrally located quad. We charged for food, drinks, face painting and t-shirts designed by members of my class, and people were encouraged to enter into a raffle. Raffle prizes varied in value (all were donated to the event), the top prize being an iPod. We also had student artists set up displays to sell their own original work, and we had a member of our class lead several students in doing live portraits and caricatures for money. Another student led a group of living statues, which were a great hit. All in all, the event raised over $500 for IC, and we hooked up with the Schools for Schools chapter at our neighbor university, University of Oklahoma (OU). They had a private donor willing to match up to $5000 of whatever they could raise of IC, so we put or money towards their fund. The Sunday after our event, a few of my fellow classmates and I presented a powerpoint detailing our project at the Great Plains Honor Conference. Our presentation has been accepted to advance on to the National Conference in Denver this fall where we will be able to share our story and hopefully spread the word about Invisible Children.
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