CMC students Candice Camargo and Talia Kahn, both Class of '07, as well as Claremont Colleges students Betsy Marder (PIT '05), Melinda Koster (POM '06), and Daniela Urban (SCR '05), will embark on an 11-day road trip on Saturday, May 14, to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide crisis in Darfur.
The itinerary, which will take the group from San Diego to Davis and back, includes possible meetings with representatives for senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as speaking engagements at high schools, synagogues, and churches, and stops at local markets and shopping centers in 14 different California cities. Students will urge the public to write lawmakers about Darfur, and also will donate proceeds from sales of Stop Genocide in Sudan T-shirts (designed by Keara Duggan '05) and Not On My Watch bracelets toward Darfur relief.
CMC students Camargo, Kahn and Joanna Repsold '07 took the lead in organizing the trip, after attending an on-campus vigil for Sudanese victims that was sponsored by the newly formed Students for Peace and Social Justice at CMC (More: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/pressreleases/article.asp?article_id=441). This group, along with Students Against Genocide, has just launched a national T-shirt campaign. (Read more: http://www.studentsagainstgenocide.org/).
The student Road Trip for Sudan is sponsored in part by The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at CMC and student groups of The Claremont Colleges, including ASCMC of Claremont McKenna.
Group members say they will keep a video and written record of their trip, to share with students, faculty, and staff upon their May 26 return to Southern California.