By Nicki Resnikoff
The Darfur Awareness Activism Training Club hosted a table at Winterfest on Dec. 15 where students and faculty could sign postcards to President-elect Barack Obama regarding the genocide in Darfur.
Jewish World Watch hopes to collect one million postcards from around the country to deliver to Obama on the first day of his presidency.
“The campaign is trying to get one million cards on Obamaâs desk to call attention to the genocide,” DAAT club leader Shelby Layne â09 said. “One million postcards would send a really powerful message.”
Students and faculty were given the opportunity to sign their name and other information on a postcard asking Obama to take action against the genocide.
At the table, there were postcards with a picture on the front available to sign, but there were also blank cards and markers that allowed the signer to decorate them with his or or her own personal art or message.
Within 15 minutes, every single postcard Layne brought was filled out.
There were also cookies and brownies brought by other club members at the table.
“Winterfest was very successful,” Layne said. “There was a large stack of postcards and they were all signed. It was amazing to see all these people learning about the cause. It was great advocacy; all these people rallying for the cause was really meaningful.”
Because of the success at the Winterfest table, Layne plans to have a table in the quad for a full school day sometime after winter break where more postcards will be available to sign.
“After witnessing the success of Winterfest, I think we could get a lot of participation in the quad all day,” she said. “I canât wait to see the continued response.”
