Tomorrow, we will jump into Lake Michigan to raise money for 100 kids in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo! Check out the day's schedule:
12:00 P.M. Registration (CrownCenter, Loyola University - 1001 W Loyola Ave)
1:00 P.M. Costume Judging
1:15 P.M. Plunge (Hartigan Beach - Albion & Lake Michigan)
1:16 – 1:59 P.M. Warm Up with Towels, Changing area, HOT food and drinks steps from the lake
2:00 P.M. Melt Down Party and reception Featuring a costume contest, art, dance performances, and free food (Crown Center)
It only costs $20 to plunge (although you are encouraged to raise as much in donations as you can!), and 100% of our donations go to the education of 100 kids in the Dwan Madiki Partnership and ELIMU.
You can also listen to us on Chicago's Public Radio Station WBEZ. We were featured on their program Worldview this past Thursday! A link to the podcast can be found here:http://www.wbez.org/content.aspx?audioID=38536.
The IC Plunge is only one week away. That means you only have 7 days to accumulate as many donations as you can! Make it count!
Check out the events going on this week to raise awareness for our biggest annual fundraiser:
MASSIVE POSTERING ON CAMPUS Sunday, Nov. 29 8pm Meet in Damen Lobby and come prepared to post!
SPIRIT WEEK (Every day this week, tape a sign on yourself saying "Ask me why I'm jumping in the lake on December 5th!") Monday, Nov. 30 Wear Loyola gear Tuesday, Dec. 1 Wear a swimsuit (over your clothes, if you prefer) Wednesday, Dec. 2 Wear your Invisible Conflicts shirt (buy one on Tuesday at our table in CFSU for $15) Thursday Dec. 3 Dress like someone in your favorite decade Friday, Dec. 4 Wear all blue
BAKE SALES Tuesday Dec. 1 and Thursday Dec. 4 10am - 3pm in CFSU Pick up registration packets and treats! Buy an IC tshirt for $15
ALTERNATIVE GIFT FAIR Wednesday Dec. 2 and Thursday Dec. 3 11am - 4pm in CFSU Buy kid-designed cards, IC shirts, necklaces from and photo prints.
LAST WEEKLY MEETING BEFORE THE PLUNGE Thursday Dec. 2 Damen 236, 8pm
We’ll have a blurb about IC and the plunge on Chicago’s public radio station on December
Press kits are all sent out!
EMT stuff is good to go. We need snow shovels/spade shovels for the day of. Bring these to the Plunge if you have them!
UNICEF group – interested in being involved with the Plunge. If some IC members go to their movie screening on the Tuesday after break at 7pm in Simpson Multipurpose room, we can announce the Plunge.
Making a Ugandan hut at the Plunge in Crown Center – the planning people are making progress. We have detailed inventories of some of the huts of families we work with in Uganda which can be used to make the huts realistic.
Getting IC Plunge put on plasma screens in campus- the guy in charge of it emailed back.
Food – going back to places that haven’t said yes.
Oatmeal – we’ll make lots of it for the day of.
We have cups, utensils, etc.
If anyone wants to bake, go ahead. Let Caitlin know if you can bring something.
Black world studies, environmental studies, peace studies – emails sent out to these departments.
Contacted all organizations on campus. Many have said they will announce it in their groups and will send out packets. Also was announced at sex trafficking event on Tuesday which had a lot of people in attendance.
Tunnel of Oppression was cancelled because there was little interest in it by other groups. We were the only group who really showed interest in it, though, so we are on their good side. Will probably be able to get RHA funding. We were also given an opportunity to put an Invisible Conflicts display in Fordham hall.
We have bake sale tables from 10-3 in CFSU on Tuesday and Friday the week of the Plunge. Email Michelle is you can bake/work for the table!
Permit from the city for permission to do the Plunge– working on it! Waiting for it to be ok’d, but we’re on the right track (it was sent it way ahead of time).
Paypal is up and running (encourage people to donate on the website!). Letters for tax deduction are almost ready.
SFR form for prizes, printing, etc. will be submitted soon.
Madison G. made a sweet video promoting the Plunge.
Fair trade gift fair – Dec. 2 and 3. Will sell Dave’s photos, the packs of cards, maybe necklaces, banana leaf pictures, and t-shirts. Need two or three people to sit down and figure out what will be sold, what the prices will be, etc.
Possibility - IC Plunge tshirts (that we would pay for ourselves) to wear the day of? Although, we already have tshirts to sell. We’ll decide on it later.
Make sure your checks are made out to ELIMU! This point is super important because one page of the press packet said checks should be written out to IC. But CHECKS SHOULD BE MADE OUT TO ELIMU.
Conference call on Saturday to Uganda – talked to Patrick. He was excited, as always. Will get the kids and the board members to write letters of encouragement to us for the Plunge!
Updates on DMP – the board is still meeting regularly. One boy in our program was expelled for being caught with a lighter in his room. Our board is working on this problem because the school didn’t do a good job of dealing with the situation. Our board is so helpful – get to the bottom of it. Find out what happened, if he was not happy at that school, etc, instead of just expelling him from the program.
Interviews for project manager happening soon.
Another call this weekend - 10am Saturday Megan’s apartment. Everyone is welcome.
The Day of the Plunge – Google doc online. We filled it out.
"Registering the Worlds Invisible Children" A birth certificate is a fact of life for many. Yet there are millions of babies born each year who are never registered, depriving them of vital education and health care and leaving them vulnerable to abuse. Plan International has gone some way to reverse this situation, as the BBC's Penny Spiller explains.
Food donations for the plunge– Caitlin and co. are making progress.
Go to Mertz and all of the other dorms to get people involved! Organize floor teams, or just ask people for their spare change. Every dollar makes a difference!
Megan’s mom is going to help with fundraising (Thanks Mrs. Mercer!)
Here's a new fundraising idea: get a business or corporation to sponsor you – they can give you a donation and you advertise their logo at the plunge, etc.
Can we get student reps from Red Bull at the plunge?
Towels from Halas?
Get RAs involved! – by involving RA's and the resident hall association we can get extra people and funding for the plunge.
Oatmeal at the plunge - cheap, easy, delicious and hot!
Make sure to come to this weeks meeting and help out with pre-plunge planning...ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS UNTIL THE 2009 IC PLUNGE!
Be sure to come to tomorrow nights meeting to get pumped up for the plunge! We will also be assigning task groups, so get involved and help make this years Plunge the best yet!
8:00 PM in Damen Room 236
Check out this video of the kids of Dwon Madiki talking about the I.C. Plunge 2007 and get motivated: IC PLUNGE 2007
Over 25,000 children die every day around the world.
That is equivalent to:
1 child dying every 3.5 seconds
17-18 children dying every minute
A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 1.5 weeks
An Iraq-scale death toll every 16–38 days
Over 9 million children dying every year
Some 70 million children dying between 2000 and 2007
The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.
Here is an article sent to us by IC member Derrick. Did you know that over 25,000 children die around the world EVERY DAY? Probably not, because it's an invisible conflict!
Turn off your cell phone for 24 hours to help raise awareness of how coltan mining is fueling Africa's longest running war in the Congo. If you aren't familiar with the horrible effects of Coltan mining check out these links:
Loyola's Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy (CUERP) and the University Libraries will kick off an environmental film series with the documentary "Flow," which examines the question "Who owns the water?" when it comes to the privatization of water by companies extracting ground water to bottle and sell.
"Flow" will be shown on October 22 at 6:30 p.m. in Damen Hall's Finnegan Auditorium, followed by a question and answer period with Dr. Mark Luttenton, Professor of Aquatic Ecology and Water Rights Expert from Grand Valley State University, Michigan. Dr. Luttenton has served as an expert witness in a case of the State of Michigan vs. Nestle (owners of Ice Mountain bottled water) for the past nine years, and he will discuss the issue with participants.
Free popcorn and licorice will be served. Bring your own drink (not bottled water, though). For more information, e-mail cuerp@luc.edu.
Here is an interesting article on the status of displacement camps in Kenya. The full article is here.
A Kenyan deadline expires on Friday for people displaced by post-election violence to leave their camps.
Two weeks ago President Mwai Kibaki ordered the closure of the camps, which at the peak of the violence were home to around 500,000 people.
But more than a year-and-a-half later there are Kenyans still living in tents some of whom are reluctant to leave.
Stanley Wanyoike said he will only leave if the president keeps his promise to give them land.
"We are ready to leave if the promise made by the head of state is fulfilled," said Mr Wanyoike, who was forced to flee his home with his wife and five children on 30 December 2007 - the night President Kibaki was controversially declared the winner of the election.
The government says you can't be given that money unless you pull down the tent. But if you pull down the tent you don't have anywhere to go
Here are the minutes from tonight's meeting. We have some really huge events coming up within the next few weeks, so stay posted for announcements!
Next Weeks IC Screening: Next week, we will hopefully have over 100 people and popcorn and hot cider!
(WE MUST HAVE AT LEAST 80 PEOPLE! Tell EVERYONE you know!) Join the facebook group and spread the word, make the promotional flier your facebook profile picture!
7P.M. Galvin Auditorium Wednesday October 14th
BAKE SALE: There will be a bakesale to promote the screening on Wednesday the 14th, from 9 to 3pm in Damen. Contact Caitlin of you want to help at c.cubbon@gmail.com or 248-390-2305. There will be a baking/craft party prior to the day of the screening at Madison and Caitlin's, stay posted for the date and time!
Also, be sure to wear your Invisible Children of Invisible Conflicts T-shirts the day of the screening.
Benefit Concert:The benefit concert has been moved to Spring Semester!
SFR Funding Reminder: All task groups MUST turn in funding requests to Kelsey 2WEEKS before any event…3 weeks to be safe!
Group Announcements!
Ourfairearth.com – our new contact with a great art dealership in Andersonville that showcases and sells Ugandan textiles and products. FIELD TRIP SOON!
A Makeover Movement to End Child Trafficking, a Mary Kay party in Zips Lounge Monday, October 12th at 7:30pm. New products, a free makeover and refreshments! ALL proceeds benefit Stop Child Trafficking Now!
List of restaurants that will donate food for IC plunge! Einstein’s, Panera, Halas for towels, Chipotle, Argo Tea, Campus foods? Ethiopian Diamond…GO FIND MORE!
Goodsearch.com donates money to Invisible Children every time you search.
Congo Week Announcements:
Congo Week Schedule
Monday: Documentary called White Kings, Red Rubber, Black Death. Tentatively scheduled for Damen at 7pm.
Tuesday: International Rights Lawyer speaking about Invisible Conflicts (probably will be in Damen also).
Wednesday: CELL OUT
Thursday/ Maybe Wednesday: Candle light vigil
Saturday: Cultural meeting with Loyola community
REMINDER: Anyone in task groups who need event posters email Arts and Media ASAP! Meghan, MWelham@luc.edu
Invisible Conflicts is a student organization started at Loyola University Chicago devoted to exposing the conflicts which are neglected by most western media and governments. We tell the stories of these invisible conflicts through the use of film, music, and conversations. It is the mission of IC to build relationships between communities of power and privilege to communities of poverty and oppression. Through the exchange of cultural values and knowledge, we find practical ways to help one another end violence, strengthen education, re-establish culture, eradicate poverty, and renew overall quality of life and well-being for those who are affected by these conflicts. In the Fall 2006, IC established the Dwon Madiki Partnership, which provides an education for 20 orphans in Northern Uganda. IC also recently partnered with Fondation Elimu- an organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo providing an education to children affected by war and equipping destroyed schools with furniture and school supplies.
The government says you can't be given that money unless you pull down the tent. But if you pull down the tent you don't have anywhere to go 
