MIT Mac4Change by Erick P. '17
MIT students raising money to feed the homeless on Veteran's day
I wanted to give everyone an update on our campaign to feed the homeless that I started with my friends last month. On November 11, 2015, Veteran’s Day and the last day of our campaign, we set up at one of our MIT dormitories, Maseeh Hall, from 7 to 9, to fundraise and spread awareness. Our goal was to raise at least $100 but more importantly to spread our message and empower students like us to believe that they too can make a difference.
Over 60 people donated and we raised a total of $275 in just two hours! That brought our total up $3,886.
Special guests of the night included Kevin Lilly, founder of Samaritan Steps, a nonprofit that provides youth, veterans, and communities as a whole with resources to become self-sufficient, Cody Chamberlain, community manager at TechHub Boston, a unique, recently opened, startup co-working space, and every single brother of Phi Kappa Sigma at MIT.
Students stopped by, ate with us, and were surprised that we were just college students running this campaign. We started with no resources and little experience and in less then a month we got national sponsors, blogged about by HerCampus and Indiegogo, and even retweeted by celebrities. But, most importantly, we got our message out there. Other students began asking us how they too could do their own fundraiser for causes they felt passionate about. And we told them how step by step.
Our campaign closed that midnight, but our mission is just beginning. #changinglives
*All photo credit goes Nina L. ’19.