Halloween is fast-approaching and some Mills students are using the holiday to combine fun with a good cause.
Members in the Leadership and Social Justice Living Learning Community (LLC) will go “trick-or-treating” for donations from the Mills community to raise money for the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
From Oct. 27 to Oct. 29, students will table for spare change at the front of the Tea Shop from 11 to 4 p.m. The event will end at the Mills Halloween dance, held on Holloween Night from 8 to 9 p.m. All proceeds will go to UNICEF.
Rebecca Freeman, a first-year, is in charge of organizing the event. Freeman and other LLC members worked to get UNICEF donation boxes, informational packets, catalogues and posters.
“I felt it would be a great social justice cause,” said first-year Lin Rui Li, who expressed her excitement to be working with other students who share her interests in social change.
Freeman said this is one of many events the LLC hopes to do as leaders of social justice: “To have success, having not just a group but a community is so important,” she said. “That community becomes a movement.”
Sophomore Tymeesa Rutledge, the LLC’s resident assistant is looking forward to the event. “I’m excited. I’m happy that our LLC wants to do something for others. I’m happy to see that they are all taking it seriously,” said Rutledge.
“People think about social justice as being far away, but it is an everyday thing.”
She said that was the LLC’s objective – to “make social justice real everyday.” The Leadership and Social Justice LLC is one of many dorm communities designed to bring first-year students together around their shared interests.
UNICEF has been a permanent part of the United Nations since 1953, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 for its efforts to work internationally across borders. It provides children with basic health needs – immunizations, nutrition, water, medical supplies and shelter – and trains volunteers and aid workers.
“The money isn’t just going anywhere,” Freeman explained, “It’s teaching people to value kids as they should be valued.”
So far, the majority of the LLC is participating in the project, as the UNICEF “Trick-or-Treat” boxes can be seen on desks, doors and bulletin boards throughout their Orchard Meadow hallway.
“The LLC is acting like a team,” said Freeman. “Everyone has different talents to bring to the table.”
According to Freeman, another way to help children in need is purchasing their hand-made cards and gifts from the UNICEF catalogue.
“The rights and the well being of children is my cause,” said Freeman, “but the campaign does not end here.”
