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Justin Mills, Student Senate, (785) 864- 8574; or Anna Gregory,
Student Senate, (785) 864-3710
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•Editors note: Hometowns are Halstead, Haven, Hays, Lawrence, Topeka and Wichita and Pierre, S.D. , and Wanamassa, N.J.
LAWRENCE -- University of Kansas Student Body President Justin Mills
announced today that KU students raised more than $29,500 in relief funds
for the terrorist attack victims and rescue workers.
Mills, who camped out at Wescoe Beach for 52 hours beginning at 7:45 a.m.
Tuesday, said the final count would likely be higher but that it would take
a few days to sort out all contributions. Mills is a graduate student in
history from Lansing.
Michael LeCount, second-year law student from Hays working as treasurer for
the "Bring Justin Home" campaign, said the students would continue to take
donations at the Student Senate offices in the Kansas Union for several more
days. Anyone who wishes to donate is encouraged to stop by the senate
offices in the Kansas Union or call (785) 864-3710.
Originally Mills had planned to end his fund-raising vigil after 48 hours.
He extended it a few hours on Thursday when he learned students planned to
hold a peace rally at 12:30 p.m. on Wescoe beach, the expanse of steps
leading into a central campus building that provides classrooms and offices
for the humanities.
Mills opened the rally congratulating the students for raising about $29,000
and the 150 students seated on the steps or standing in the sunshine on the
sidewalk in front of Wescoe Hall applauded. He then read a quote from Martin
Luther King, Jr.:
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending
spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy... instead of
diminishing evile it multiplies it ... . Through violence you may murder the
hater but you do not murder the hate ... in fact, violence for violence
multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of
stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
At the rally, students read statements for peace. A sign taped to a pillar nearby read "Justice = Peace." Another sign read: "An eye for an eye, makes the world blind."
Meanwhile, a half dozen students were working in a tent to tally the final collections including Drew Thomas, Hays junior, who kept the vigil with Mills from 11 a.m. Tuesday through 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"On Tuesday, I went to my classes, but pretty much worked here through the day and night, " Thomas said. He wasn't able to sleep until he went home Wednesday night.
Margaret Beedles, Lawrence junior, and Bailey Kivett, Haven junior, brought in a second tent Wednesday night to keep the vigil with Mills and other students.
Students continued to gather at the tents late into the night -- often stopping to talk about the Sept. 11 events as well as other things on their minds, Mills said. One student called a New York City firefighter friend when she stopped by the tent to tell him what the KU students where doing.
Mills said he talked to the firefighter too. "It's pretty devastating. He talked about how the core of the building is still smoldering and their fears that people remain trapped in the core."
Beedles said that about 3 a.m. Thursday, it grew quiet and most were able to sleep a few hours. Maintenance workers were working in the area about 6 a.m. Thursday and by 7 a.m. students and faculty were stopping by the tent with donations. When Thomas returned to the tent on Thursday morning, he found Jesse Oehlert, Haven senior; Karen Keith, Tulsa junior; and Kyle Browning, Lawrence senior, working with Mills and LeCount.
KU Student Senate has 80 elected representatives, nearly all of whom worked to raise funds for victims and survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The officers include Mills, president; Kyle Browning, vice president; Ben Walker Burton, senior from Wanamassa, N.J., student executive committee chair; Andy Spikes, Wichita senior, treasurer; Anna Gregory, Topeka sophomore, communications director; and McLean Thompson, Pierre, S.D., junior, treasurer.
Mills said he hadn't slept much even before he began the fund-raising campaign and estimated he had slept about six hours Tuesday and Wednesday. "I was watching the news forever and couldn't concentrate on my studies," Mills said of his reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist tragedies. "I think we need some time to heal and to calm before we take any other action."
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