Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Fund Raiser

Submitted by Christopher Bowen, Resident Assistant, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine

With the start of 2nd semester underway I started to pick my brain for programming ideas. But instead of doing the usual type of program just involving my community of 21 males I decided I wanted to implement a program for the campus community, opening it up to all and getting everyone involved. I decided I wanted to do a program that not only improved my campus community but something that makes a difference in the world. Along with the help from another RA we sat down and discussed some ideas.

Right now the U.S. government is running a campaign to raise money to help build a Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. My friend and I decided we would have a campus wide fund raiser and raise money to contribute as a college community to this great cause.

First we started by looking up the www.buildthedream.org web page, where we found information on the monument design, how much money needs to be raised, who is involved in this cause, and how we go about mailing the money in (this information is all provided on the homepage). Then we spoke to several people on campus, our AC's (maybe known as RD's on your campus) and they agreed that this was a great program idea and would help us get the program rolling. We then set up an outline of how we would get the word around about the fund raising campaign.

We ran information copies off from the homepage and made handouts and signs and posted them, as well as had three information sessions were we spoke about Martin Luther King and his contributions. We discussed things like how important equal rights are, how a memorial in the name of such a remarkable man should also stand amongst the other remarkable individuals who helped form this great nation. On the signs and handouts explained how individuals could go about making a contribution. Residents were able to make contributions by either giving money to their RA or by visiting a table we set up in the academic building hallway during high traffic times. We also involved faculty and staff in this program.

At the end of each day the money is counted and giving to one of our AC's for safe keeping. We have a thermometer diagram we color in each day so the community sees the progress of the fundraising campaign and how every contribution whether big or little makes a difference. We are running this program through Feb while our College has many other black history month events. We believe this will give us an ample opportunity to collect money.

Good luck with your programming and remember "Help Build a Dream."