Top ten schools to petition Washington lawmakers for action to stop genocide, will present funds to Darfur groups
Contact: Melissa Salmanowitz, 202-478-6138, 202-222-5233; Ashley Roberts, 202-478-6181, both for Save Darfur Coalition; http://media.savedarfur.org
WASHINGTON, May 16 /Standard Newswire/ -- Students from more than 2,000 U.S. high schools raised their voices and over $300,000 to urge an end to ongoing genocide in Darfur, as part of the national Dollars for Darfur competition sponsored by the Save Darfur Coalition. For the competition, high school students used traditional and non-traditional fundraising methods to raise dollars that will be used to increase advocacy efforts to stop the genocide and increase humanitarian aid for Darfuri refugees. Students and advisors from the top ten participating schools will next month travel to Washington to urge their lawmakers to do more to stop the killings in Darfur.
"Students from all across America expressed their passion, creativity and humanity to increase awareness and raise money for critical advocacy and humanitarian programs," said David Rubenstein, Save Darfur Coalition executive director. "While those committing the genocide represent the very worst of our society, these students selflessly represent the very best of our country, our society, and the save Darfur movement."
With no marketing budget, students participating in Dollars for Darfur, which began in November and concluded in April, used social networking websites to recruit participating high schools. Students joined Facebook and MySpace group pages that linked to the Dollars for Darfur website, where they enrolled their high school to join the challenge, learned how to organize fundraising events, and tracked funds raised by each school.
The winning schools include:
- Northfield Mount Hermon School, $15,412 (Gill, MA)
- Wyoming High School, $14,300 (Cincinnati, OH)
- Clearwater Central Catholic High School, $9,468 (Clearwater, FL)
- Lenox High School, $8,173 (Lenox, MA)
- Mill River Union NHS, $7,161 (North Clarendon, VT)
- William S. Hart High School, $6,852 (Newhall, CA)
- North Rockland High School, $5,904 (Rockland County, NY)
- Tottenville High School, $5,820 (Staten Island/NYC, NY)
- Bethel Park High School, $5,619 (Pittsburgh, PA)
- St. Agnes Academy, $5,611 (Houston, TX)
The creative fundraising techniques employed by the winning schools ranged from bake sales to student versus teacher arm-wrestling competitions. At Florida's Clearwater Central Catholic High School, organizers held a reminder meal, in which students paid their usual amount of lunch money for a bowl of rice, bread and water to be reminded of the conditions that Darfuri refugees face daily. Students at William S. Hart High School organized a student group called "We Hart Darfur" that created an educational video about the crisis in Darfur. After presenting the video to English classes across campus, students were given the opportunity to donate money and sign petitions to be sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to make Darfur a top priority.
About the Save Darfur Coalition -- The Save Darfur Coalition raises public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and mobilizes a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of people throughout the Darfur region. It is an alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. The coalition's member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people of Darfur. For more information on the coalition, please visit http://www.savedarfur.org/. To obtain footage from the Darfur border region, coalition events, various interviews, and more, please visit the Save Darfur Coalition media gallery at http://media.savedarfur.org/. All footage may be previewed in non-broadcast quality and may be purchased in broadcast quality by filling out the purchase request form provided on the site.
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