Fundraising for the Invisible Children cause
The chapter is taking a new approach this year by partnering with the Greek system.
Freshman Damon Yeuter, a Theta Xi fraternity member, said Theta Xi needed to choose a philanthropy event, so he suggested Invisible Children after being involved in the organization during high school.
This is the first year Invisible Children has partnered with a fraternity to help run a fundraiser. Last year, Invisible Children held a screening about a child soldier named Jacob, who was able to attend the event, which attracted 250 students and raised $1,000 for students abroad in Uganda to rebuild schools and help fund redevelopment programs, and Devin Erickson, president of the UW chapter of Invisible Children, said the new partnership with the Greek system will help promote the event even more for this year.
“We’re really lucky to have them because [the Greek system] is a big portion of campus,” Erickson said. “And they offered to house the PNW team.”
The film featured at the screening documents the friendship that developed between Bazilo and Nate Henn, a volunteer for Invisible Children who died during an attack in Uganda.
“The movie will touch base on what Invisible Children has done for him and capture his relationship with one of the roadies from Invisible Children,” Erickson said. “Nate died while he was in Africa visiting Tony. There was a terrorist bomb attack, and he was unfortunately a victim.”
Though the UW chapter was unable to have Tony himself appear tonight, Acan Brenda, a student from Uganda in Invisible Children’s Legacy Scholarship Program, will speak instead.
Erickson said a main goal of the UW chapter is to close the gap between awareness and action on the issue of child soldiers and to help bring notice to what he referred to as “the longest-running war in Africa.”
“We want to do fundraising to collect donations for the programs that they already have, such as Schools for Schools, a program where Invisible Children builds partner schools for which teachers from over here can go and teach over there,” Erickson said.
“Our purpose is to keep doing screenings, fundraising, activities, little movie screenings in the dorms. We had one in Lander the two weeks before spring break. We had a few more members to join the chapter and got the word out for the screening tomorrow.”
Invisible Children was started in 2003 after three filmmakers traveling in Africa started the nonprofit. The organization’s website says its goal is to help promote awareness about the use of children as “both the weapons and the victims” in Uganda and give individuals an effective way to respond to the situation.
The UW chapter of Invisible Children and Theta Xi fraternity helped fundraise and advertise for the event, but the Pacific Northwest team from the Invisible Children headquarters in California is managing it.
To help promote the event, Theta Xi planned a volleyball tournament to raise money for the chapter, along with tabling in Red Square and creating posters and collecting donations for the screening. The tournament was supposed to be held yesterday, but it was cancelled due to weather conditions.
The Invisible Children chapter members began planning for the event at their first meeting in winter quarter and discussed various fundraising events, such as tabling and bake sales. Ultimately, they decided to put on another movie screening like they did at their fundraising event the previous year.
Erickson said events in past years had been pretty inactive, so the screening last year “really put us on the map.”
“Our purpose is to establish Invisible Children at UW, and once we are established and people know who we are, it’s to get more members and fundraise by doing different events,” Erickson said. “By no means are we done after this screening.”
Reach reporter Liz Cummings at news @ dailyuw.com.