Delta Tau Delta sells apples to fight slavery
Mark Hensch
Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: News
Delta Tau Delta fraternity is tackling the spread of human trafficking and slavery around the globe.
Spanning three events, the fraternity's fundraiser kicked off in September and will run through November. Culminating Nov. 21, the entire process aims at gearing up Hillsdale College students for the trafficking documentary "Call + Response."
"We're trying to raise awareness of the issue of slavery in the world today," said sophomore Drew French, the DTD philanthropy chairman. "It flies under the radar. There are more slaves in the world today than ever before. It is an elephant in the room."
French said the first event started Monday, Sept. 21 before finishing Friday, Sept. 25. Titled "Abolition Apples," it sold a set of three apples from local grower Glei's Orchards & Green-houses for $3. Following this, he said, is a sale of chocolate made by freed slaves from Ghana Monday, Oct. 26 through Friday, Oct. 30. Last, he said DTD will sell candy canes the last week of November. All proceeds go towards Call + Response, the company showing the documentary Nov. 21, he said.
"People should know what is going on in the world and this is a good way to see this massive issue on screen," French said. "Students will be shocked at how inhumane this is and motivated to action."
French said the fundraiser already caught attention spans with its "an apple a day keeps the pimps away" slogan during the apple sales. He said a few students found the phrase in poor taste.
One such student is senior James Joseph. Finding the display tawdry, Joseph said DTD's adver-tising cheapened their work towards a noble cause.
"There are other ways to convey a very important point," Joseph said. "I thought it was poorly done shock value. If you're trying to be inclusive, you shouldn't make statements to push people away."
For his part, French said the advertisement aimed at confronting the harsh reality of human slavery.
"I think one or two people commented that our tactics were crass," French said of the responses towards the slogan. "This point I conceded and made note of how crass and despicable human trafficking is. The slogan provided a good hook to draw people in and then have a real conversa-tion about the issue."
Spanning three events, the fraternity's fundraiser kicked off in September and will run through November. Culminating Nov. 21, the entire process aims at gearing up Hillsdale College students for the trafficking documentary "Call + Response."
"We're trying to raise awareness of the issue of slavery in the world today," said sophomore Drew French, the DTD philanthropy chairman. "It flies under the radar. There are more slaves in the world today than ever before. It is an elephant in the room."
French said the first event started Monday, Sept. 21 before finishing Friday, Sept. 25. Titled "Abolition Apples," it sold a set of three apples from local grower Glei's Orchards & Green-houses for $3. Following this, he said, is a sale of chocolate made by freed slaves from Ghana Monday, Oct. 26 through Friday, Oct. 30. Last, he said DTD will sell candy canes the last week of November. All proceeds go towards Call + Response, the company showing the documentary Nov. 21, he said.
"People should know what is going on in the world and this is a good way to see this massive issue on screen," French said. "Students will be shocked at how inhumane this is and motivated to action."
French said the fundraiser already caught attention spans with its "an apple a day keeps the pimps away" slogan during the apple sales. He said a few students found the phrase in poor taste.
One such student is senior James Joseph. Finding the display tawdry, Joseph said DTD's adver-tising cheapened their work towards a noble cause.
"There are other ways to convey a very important point," Joseph said. "I thought it was poorly done shock value. If you're trying to be inclusive, you shouldn't make statements to push people away."
For his part, French said the advertisement aimed at confronting the harsh reality of human slavery.
"I think one or two people commented that our tactics were crass," French said of the responses towards the slogan. "This point I conceded and made note of how crass and despicable human trafficking is. The slogan provided a good hook to draw people in and then have a real conversa-tion about the issue."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Dustin
posted 10/02/09 @ 9:31 AM EST
Wow, no apology from the frat. Such hubris.
JoeM
Joe
posted 10/04/09 @ 11:53 PM EST
No apology was needed. It is a factually accurate statement. And it will most likely draw more people to consider DTD's noble cause.
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