Community Gifts Campaign Is Launched

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November 04, 1999

SEARCH THE GAZETTE

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

By Ken Gewertz
Gazette Staff

Homelessness is the theme of a film called Repetition Compulsion, which was made by Ellie Lee '92 and shown at the luncheon to kick off this year's Community Gifts Through Harvard Campaign.

This year’s Community Gifts Through Harvard Campaign has set its sights on a fund raising goal of $880,000, a nearly 10 percent increase over last year’s total of $802,626.

The new goal was announced Nov. 3 at the Campaign’s kickoff luncheon, an event attended by approximately 200 representatives from offices across the University.

The luncheon, held in the Law School’s Ropes Gray Room in Pound Hall, featured talks by President Neil L. Rudenstine, Divinity School professor Paul Hanson, United Way Senior Director of Fundraising Renee Scott Blount, and a six-minute animated film on the plight of homeless women by filmmaker Ellie Lee ’92.

Paul Grogan, Vice President for Government, Community, and Public Affairs, who serves as chair of the campaign and served as master of ceremonies, said he plans to reach the new goal by increasing participation to 50 percent. Last year’s participation rate was 37 percent.

Paul Grogan, Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs, is this year's Community Gifts chairperson.

"There shouldn’t be any lack of appreciation here at Harvard for the impact of charitable giving," Grogan said. "After all, this university is the product of charitable giving. It literally wouldn’t exist without it."

Harvard’s campaign gives employees the option of donating to the United Way, which serves organizations across New England, or of earmarking their donation for a particular charity. Pledge cards will be delivered within the next month by campaign "solicitors," co-workers who can answer questions about the drive.

Gifts can be made by cash or check, or through regular payroll deductions.

Rudenstine spoke about how giving benefits those who give as well as those who receive and said he was reminded of a 14th-century epitaph on the tombstone of a couple who were involved in philanthropy. The epitaph said "What we gave we have. What we kept we lost."

What the words meant to him, said Rudenstine, was that in giving, one becomes part of what one has given to.

"It becomes a part of you. You become a part of it," he said.

Hanson, the Florence Corliss Lamont Professor of Divinity, spoke about the homeless shelter at the University Lutheran Church (Uni-Lu) on Winthrop Street, the only student-run shelter in the country. Hanson, a member of the steering committee for the Church’s fundraising effort, spoke about the impact that working in the shelter has had on students.

"The shelter represents a tremendous educational asset," Hanson said. "Harvard students not only find there an opportunity to give expression to their moral convictions by helping the needy. They also discover that addressing the minimal needs of the single mother or the victim of unavoidable circumstances opens their eyes to issues in their classes that they had originally not seen or had viewed mainly in the abstract."

Hanson also spoke about the recently completed renovation to the Church and Shelter which has been partially supported by a $25,000 challenge grant issued by Rudenstine. Harvard employees will be able to direct their donations toward raising the $25,000 matching funds for the project through the Community Gifts through Harvard Campaign.

Film Examines Homelessness
Lee’s film, Repetition Compulsion, impressed viewers with its powerful portrayal of a woman caught between the uncertainty of homelessness and the pain of physical and emotional abuse.

Lee’s film began as a senior thesis project in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) and was inspired by her experiences working at Uni-Lu.

As an undergraduate, Lee was director of the shelter as well as the founder and co-director of the Uni-Lu Transitional Program, which focuses on finding housing and employment for the homeless. She was also the founder and co-director of the St. James Summer Shelter project.

For her film, she interviewed women at Uni-Lu about their experiences with homelessness and physical and sexual abuse, finally deciding that the best way to portray their situation while protecting their anonymity was to use animation.

Lee’s work on the film suffered a setback in 1992 when all the drawings she had completed fell out the back of her car and were destroyed on a rain-soaked highway. Several years later she started again and brought the project to completion.

"I had to finish it for the sake of the women I’d interviewed. I had no choice. Now I’m thankful the accident happened. I think the film is stronger now," she said.

Repetition Compulsion has won numerous awards both in the United States and Europe, including Best Experimental Film at the 1998 USA Film Festival.

The program ended with a talk by Renee Scott Blount, who spoke about United Way’s effectiveness in raising money for charitable organizations.

Blount said that money donated to United Way is used locally, benefiting 80 cities and towns in the greater Massachusetts area, and with overhead costs of less than 15 percent. The money is also used effectively, thanks to volunteers who carefully audit the agencies that United Way supports, she said.

Blount ended with a rousing call to action: "Someone once said that yesterday has already happened and tomorrow hasn’t happened yet. The time is right now. So you can make a difference this hour, this minute, this second, in your community."