Brandeis University senior Justin Kang had an idea to use music to combat poverty. With the help of fellow students Live Campus 2009 was formed.
The nationwide event, planed for the weekend of April 3-5, is series of benefit concerts held on various college campuses. Kang said he has a goal set of 50 campuses. So far the group has recruited about 22 colleges, including Tufts University, Harvard University, Cornell University and the University of South Florida.
"The major thing is were focusing on publicizing and getting as many schools involved as possible," he said.
Live Campus encourages participating colleges to donate its proceeds to one of the United Nations Millennium Development Group charities, which include Grassroot Soccer, Heifer International, the Hunger Project, Keep A Child Alive, Malaria No More, Mercy Corps, Millennium Promise and Millennium Campus Network.
Kang said he developed the Live Campus concept last August.
"I wanted to be creative in creating a student movement in a way that was modernized. I began thinking what is one thing that colleges and universities across the nation have in common and what I realized was concerts," Kang said. "Why not coordinate them in a way to unify for a good cause?"
Kang then pitched Live Campus to the Boston-based Millennium Campus Network, a nonprofit student coalition of anti-poverty groups in the Boston area.
"We needed a nonprofit to sponsor us, and we thought they could offer a lot of contacts," he said. "With them, we returned to school this year and I assembled a staff of six students that I rely on."
Brandeis sophomore Chrissy Callahan is an associate director for Live Campus. She acts as the media representative for the group and is also the features editor for The Hoot, the campus newspaper. Callahan said Live Campus' plan is two-fold.
"We have the fundraising effort, which we are going to raise money through the live concerts and the second part is creating a student movement on our Web site (livecampus.org)," she said.
She said the Web site will feature articles on students working to fight poverty.
"The purpose is to show people who visit the Web site that they too can make a difference and they don't have to do a huge initiative," she said.
At Brandeis, about 50 students attend Live Campus meeting to prepare for Live Campus 2009 concert. The Culture X concert will feature a variety of student performers from across the campus.
Kang said when he graduates this year he plans to pass on the Live Campus leadership role.
"It's sustainable. Other students will take on a bigger leadership role next year," he said. "The people that have shown a lot of commitment and drive will be the ones that are appointed to take on this project for next year."
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jgilbrid@cnc.com.
