My Turn To Try

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This year, I am involved in an organization on campus called Global Medical Brigades. Global Brigades is one of the world’s largest student-led global health and sustainable development organizations. It develops sustainable health initiatives and provides relief where there is limited access to healthcare. Since its beginning, more than 30,000 volunteers from over 800 university clubs have traveled to provide health and economic development solutions to more than 600,000 beneficiaries. Our efforts are focused mainly in Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, and Ghana.

I am in the Penn State chapter of the GMB, and I will be attending a service trip this winter break to Nicaragua, where we will be setting up free clinics and establishing healthier practices among the communities there. We do a lot of fundraising leading up to the trip, in order to pay for our flights, as well as all of the medical supplies we will be bringing.

One of the simplest aspects of fundraising is the donations aspect. We are supposed to be going to our friends and families, as well as other small businesses and organizations that would be willing to donate.

We are so used to being the ones influenced by all different kinds of rhetoric and calls to civil engagement, but in this case, I am the one who has to influence people.

And it’s a lot harder than it looks.

We were given a form letter to send out to businesses, but where I am finding difficulty is how to approach the people that I know.

It seems like there is a right way to go about fundraising like this and a wrong way. And I definitely want to be doing it the right way. I have to think about how my words will resonate with them, and whether or not they will influence these people to want to help the cause.

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