Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. –Margaret Mead

Amish Relief Project

For your CAS 100B project this semester, you may choose to plan and implement an awareness and fundraising effort for the families and community of the Amish girls who were killed or injured in Monday’s attack on a schoolhouse in Paradise, Pennsylvania. Five girls remain hospitalized, and the Amish do not have health insurance, so monetary donations are urgently needed. I have an address to which cash donations can be sent (they cannot accept checks as they do not have bank accounts).

Past fundraising/awareness events by CAS students have included:

• Midnight skating at the campus ice rink, with donation of all proceeds
• Sponsored runs/walks in races
• Spaghetti dinner nights
• Soliciting local businesses for in-kind and monetary donations (talk to me if you want to do this—I would prefer that you try to involve students on campus in some way)
• Performances of ethnographic and/or theatrical set pieces about the event
• Band concerts
• Direct solicitation in classes (again, talk to me if you want to do this as there are official channels that need to be gone through)

PLEASE feel free to brainstorm other options – these are just a few ideas to get you started.

If you choose to do this project, your presentations will take a slightly different approach than the media project outlined in the assignment sheet. I will work with your group to determine what those presentations will look like.

When events like this shooting occur, we often feel that they are simply a symptom of the world we live in and that there is nothing we can do either to stop them or to help afterward. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is always something we can do, both to help the victims of such attacks and to declare that we choose to live in a world in which we are all part of the same community, rather than feeling isolated and helpless. I challenge you, for this semester and beyond, to seek out ways to connect to the human community and to consider the effects that even the smallest actions on your part can have on others.

 Create your own educational wiki!Support CommunityPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS