Congratulations to the DEREE Model United Nations (MUN) Club for its rich fundraising activity over November and December in particular, helping raise funds for UNICEF through a bake sale and by taking part in a nationwide Telethon on November 20, Universal Children’s Day.

Dimitris Asproulis, Secretary & Coordinator of the Activity for the DEREE Model United Nations Club, describes the inspiring events in the letter below:

“In 1954, The United Nations established November 20 as Universal Children’s Day in order to highlight and commemorate the importance of childhood and the necessity for every child in the world to live and grow in conditions of health, safety, prosperity and love. This past November marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Children’s Day.

Additionally, on the same day in 1959 the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nowadays, these important documents have changed the way children are viewed. In fact, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted 25 years ago, is considered to be the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in human history

Having in mind the triple anniversary on November 20 2014, along with other organizations, student groups and clubs throughout the world, we decided to celebrate, advocate and promote the day on campus for the entire community of DEREE – The American College of Greece.

Our goal was twofold: a) to inform and raise awareness of our fellow-students, faculty and administration about the special anniversary and b) to manage to gather as many donations as possible to support the cause. Therefore, on November 20 2014 we prepared a Fundraising bake sale with all proceeds donated to the well-respected UN program UNICEF.

Our collaboration with UNICEF had begun some weeks earlier in order to have on the day of the bake sale related print material – such as posters, flyers, magazines, stickers etc. Furthermore, we actively promoted the event, through creative posters and the use of Contribution Walls – where students and donors could write or draw a message of love and support for all children. At the bake sale, we cooked and offered home-made finger food and desserts, and we were fortunate to cooperate with the two food venues on campus (Deipnosofistirion and Starbucks), as well as with the ACG cares organization, which very happily assisted our effort with donations both in the form of cash offering and/or goods (i.e. Starbucks donated fresh brewed coffee for the whole day).

As a result during the day of the fundraising bake sale, in just seven hours, we managed to collect the amount of €400 for donations to UNICEF and its causes. This could never have happened, and we feel that we should highly praise them, without the assistance of all our members, the donations from the ACG community and, last but not least, our supporting donors and the Student Affairs office that embraced our effort.

After the completion of our fundraising bake sale, we were invited to present our effort and donation at the telethon organized by UNICEF and the Greek Public Broadcaster NERIT on December 8 2014.

We appeared on national television around 11 pm and we briefly discussed our activity’s twofold goal and the outcome of our effort. Also, we had the Student Contribution Walls with us at the studio and we presented the sensitivity with which the entire community of DEREE – The American College of Greece approached the issue.

After our live appearance, some of us stayed and volunteered to give away sweets to the children and guests that were present. We stayed until the end of the Telethon and to the music of John Lennon’s song Imagine, with which the live program concluded, there was a live performance of a student choir that was accompanied by renowned Greek singers and actors. Overall, we had a great time participating in the Telethon and we really enjoyed being part of something impactful.”

Well done!