FSU Partners with RFK Center for Fundraiser

The RFK Center headquarters in Florence.

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” – Robert Kennedy

Students of Florida State University and Texas A&M will be making their own Florentine ripples this summer. The FSU study abroad program has partnered with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Center for a fundraiser. Students can buy T-shirts for €5, and all proceeds will go to the Robert F. Kennedy Center. The fundraiser involves a partnership with a local business: The Lion’s Fountain Pub and Restaurant. For every €5 raised, The Lion’s Fountain will match it.

The fundraiser is part of an initiative that began last summer, during which FSU students raised money for young men who had migrated from Africa to Italy with little to no monetary support. Last summer, the students raised €2,000 for the effort. During FSU’s first summer FSU session this year, students raised another €2,000. This session, FSU hopes to raise another €2,000 for the RFK Center.

Maria Abruzzo, a representative of the Robert F. Kennedy Center, stated that the proceeds will go towards a country-wide anti-bullying action. As a part of the anti-bullying initiative, employees of the Center travel around Italy educating teachers and students about bullying, its prevalence, and its effects. Thanks to FSU’s fundraiser, the Center will have the means to start a new program.

Located in Florence’s historic Le Murate building, the RFK Center spearheads a number of multi-platform programs: a radio broadcast, a magazine, a lecture series, and hands-on training sessions to spread the message of social justice. Its core programs focus on partnerships with various organizations – such as FSU’s study abroad program – in order to educate young people and generate change. (isabelle blank)