It only takes one person to make a difference in the world.
That’s why Oxford High School seniors Chelsea Wood, Lauren Lacroix and Sarah Eisenberg chose to bring awareness about the ONE Campaign for their DECA Public Relations project.
DECA is an international association of high school and college students studying marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality and marketing sales and service.
ONE is a campaign of over 2.4 million people from all over the world who are raising public awareness about the issue of global poverty, hunger and disease.
As a part of ONE, members are to both educate and ask America’s leaders to increase efforts in fighting these global issues.
‘This project is mostly to spread awareness to make The ONE more well known in our community,? Eisenberg said.
To help spread the word, the girls created their own T-shirts with the motto ‘Be the difference. It only takes one.? printed on them and sold them at various school and community events for $10.
They also created rubber bracelets, held a fund-raiser at Buffalo Wild Wings in Lake Orion and created a video about the campaign to share with the entire high school.
So far, they’ve collected over $1,000, although they say fund-raising isn’t the main goal of the project.
Last week, they passed out red AIDS ribbons to the student body for their own AIDS Awareness Week.
They even got Devangni Patel, who is part of the Detroit ONE group, to speak to students Dec. 7 about how important it is to help the ONE Campaign.
Some of the interesting statistics the girls learned from their research with ONE is that one penny provides drinking water to a family of six, and that more than 38 million people around the world are infected by HIV/AIDS, 25 million in Africa alone.
‘Basically, our target demographic is the students in school because they need to be educated now so they can do more later in life,? Wood said. ‘A lot of them are naive about it and don’t even know.?
The trio will take their project to the state competition in Dearborn next March. If they are named one of the top four, they will head to the national DECA competition in Atlanta, GA.
To help the girls spread awareness about the ONE Campaign, contact Chelsea Wood via e-mail at chelsw37@yahoo.com about purchasing T-shirts, or visit the website at www.one.org to see how you can make a difference.