December 20, 2005 Source: Augustana University College:
http://www.augustana.ca/include/auc_news/full_view.php?id=104 Cold Hands Warm Hearts - AAA raises funds and AIDs awareness What do a former surveyor from Newfoundland, an organic farmer from Viking Alberta and a young Ugandan woman who wants to be a nurse, have in common? They have the University of Alberta, Camrose and a cause. They are members of the Augustana Against AIDs Student Society, a small group of students with great big goals at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus. Their goal is to raise awareness about AIDs in Africa, to create a long-term twinning project between the campus and an orphanage in Africa , and they also want to $50K for the Stephen Lewis Foundation this year. "If we set the bar low we can only rise to mediocrity," says Bruce Phillips 4th year student and AAA president. Augustana Against Aids was formed in 2004/5 by a handful of students who were moved by a video of Stephen Lewis and the AIDs pandemic in Africa. "We just felt we had to do something," says Phillips. The students got active and began raising awareness and funds last year. One of their most successful ventures was the Augustana Against AIDs Hockey for Life tournament, which pitted the Augsutana Vikings hockey team against the Viking Alberta junior team in a back to back weekend tournament over the Christmas break. The tournament was the brainchild of AAA alumnus and Viking native Brian Rozmahel. Rozmahel, (the organic farmer from Viking), graduated from Augustana last year with a BA in Development studies and is running for the Federal Green Party in his riding this year. The match was a sellout, and raised almost $5,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation in the winter of 2005. The students were pumped about the success of the event – not only in dollars raised but in awareness raised amongst students and in the rural Albertan community. As an offshoot, and with the efforts of Rozmahel, Viking has twinned their school with a school in Africa to help assist children orphaned by the ravages of the worst health pandemic the modern world has witnessed to date. AAA, inspired further by their contact with the Stephen Lewis Foundation was able to convince Stephen Lewis to come to Augustana Campus on January 30, 2006. The date was selected because of its synchronicity with the kickoff of the U of A riverside Edmonton Campus’s International Week. The possibility of two gigs was the clincher for booking Lewis, whom Time magazine calls one of the most influential people in the world. Lewis will give an opening address on human rights at noon on the 30th, in Edmonton and then deliver a keynote address on AIDS at the Augustana Campus gymnasium in Camrose at 6:30 that evening. AAA wants the speech to be the beginning, not the end of campus activities for the AIDs cause. "Our real goal is to make a connection with an orphanage that the students here can raise funds for and provide support to over time," says Bruce Phillips. When Ugandan native, Catherine Rubanga came to Augustana, little did she know that in a small city of 15,000 in the snowbound prairies of Alberta she would find a way to be of purpose to Africa. "AAA focuses on children and orphans," remarks Rubanga. "For this cause I am totally there." In a first-world political climate that often cautions against giving aid to what many call a hopeless cause, Rubanga would argue the success of Uganda. "My country is one of Africa’s success stories. They have in my lifetime reduced the percentage of people with AIDS from over 20% to 6%. They did this with help, a lot of help. I know that I can make a difference." To be making a difference from so far away from home is significant to Rubanga, who feels that she can connect to the campus community in a way that others may not be able to. "I can help people be aware that AIDs is not that far away and that Africa is not another planet." So far AAA has sold over 500 tickets to the January event. A sell out crowd will move them $10K towards their goal. They are also keeping their hands busy making scarves, jewelry and other hand made goods in the ‘we make’ campaign. This year the ‘Hockey for Life’ campaign has expanded to the ‘Sport for Life’ campaign as Augustana’s sports teams have all enlisted their support to the cause. "This is a wonderful opportunity to give our student athletes to contribute to and also to provide awareness about the issues that surround AIDs." AAA is also raising funds the old fashioned way, pounding the pavement in the local community giving presentations to the Rotary, to area Church groups and to businesses asking for their support. Recently a donor offered $750 to AAA, if they can match the funds. Tickets and information about the Camrose Stephen Lewis event can be found at http://www.augustana.ca/promotional/stephenlewis/ For information about the Stephen Lewis Foundation go to:
www.stephenlewis.org
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