Students Camp Out in Mills Library for Charity

Second year Philosophy student Jeremy Landon and second year English student Shazeen Dhala  normally spend plenty of time in McMaster’s campus libraries; however, over the next ten days the pair will be taking it to the extreme as they camp out 24-7 in the lobby of Mills Memorial Library to support the 2009 Live in for Literacy campaign, raising money to help construct nine school libraries in India through a charity called Room to Read.

Starting at 1pm on Friday, January 16th until Monday, January 26th, Landon and Dhala will spend every waking and sleeping hour in plain view of the crowds of library visitors that pass through the Mills’ lobby each day.  Their entire lives will also be broadcast over the web 24 hours a day and they won’t leave their roped-off corner of the lobby except for the five minute break each of them is allowed every hour.

"Being a fourth year student, the responsibility of organizing such an event seemed overwhelming in the beginning, but once I realized the impact as a student we could all have on international development, I was convinced. I am really excited for the commencement of this event and glad to have brought Live in for Literacy to McMaster!” said Karishma Kak, the leader in charge of the event at McMaster.

Associate University Librarian Vivian Lewis says, “The students were so surprised that we agreed to let them camp out here!  The truth is we were thrilled about the idea and jumped at the opportunity to help out in any way we could.  We even offered that they could invite their instructors to hold smaller tutorials in the lobby if they were so inclined.”

In conjunction with the ‘live-in’, volunteers are also selling t-shirts for $7.50 a piece.  The event is part of a larger campaign, with other students camping out at the libraries of Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Toronto, Concordia University, Queen's University, Laurentian University and University of British Columbia. Together, they hope to raise $40,000.

More information on the event, including how to make a donation, can also be found at www.liveinforliteracy.com.

This story also appeared in the Daily News.

See also the article in the Hamilton Spectator.

See also the Silhouette article.