Biehl
trust fund seeks support
By Amy Cucinella
On-line Forty-Niner
“Who
is Amy Biehl?” asked various signs posted
on campus last week.
That is a question Shahrokh Sheik, Associated
Students Inc. vice president and Aristotle
Tsekouras, A.S.I. treasurer, plan to answer
for the Cal State Long Beach campus.
Sheik and Tsekouras are spearheading a lollipop
fund-raising campaign to raise money for
the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust (ABFT) through
the President’s Ambassadors program, a group
of selected students chosen to act as social
hosts on behalf of CSULB President Robert
Maxson.
This is a first-time effort by the President’s
Ambassadors to raise money for the Amy Biehl
Foundation Trust.
“Although this is the first year, our hope
is that this continues to go on for years
and becomes a tradition at our school,”
Tsekouras said.
Biehl, a graduate of Stanford University,
was an activist for democracy and human
rights in South Africa during apartheid.
In August of 1993, she drove friends home
to the township of Guguletu, in South Africa,
and was stoned and stabbed to death by local
youths who had just attended a Pan Africanist
Congress rally condemning whites’ involvement
in perpetuating racial inequality, according
to the Living Values page on the University
of Massaschusetts Amherst’ Web site.
To commemorate Amy Biehl’s dedication to
ensuring human rights and racial justice
through the empowerment of disadvantaged
communities, her parents established the
Amy Biehl Foundation in the United States
and the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, or ABFT,
in South Africa.
The trust administers community-based and
primarily youth-oriented programs in areas
such as education, health and safety, employment
skills, recreation, and art and music.
With the help of grants, donations and their
own money, the Biehls have sponsored such
things as welding classes and after-school
programs, including tutorials for those
who want to go to college, according to
a story aired by 60 Minutes on the Biehl
family in 1999.
The ABFT was first brought to the attention
of the President’s Ambassadors by Sylvia
Maxson, a professor in the department of
teacher education and wife of President
Maxson. Sylvia Maxson traveled to South
Africa this past summer on a Fulbright Scholarship,
a distinction shared with Biehl, and became
aware of the ABFT’s work when she visited
one of the program’s after-school program
that taught children such things as how
to read, cook and plant gardens.
“I was really touched by the work I saw,”
Sylvia Maxson said. “It’s a really important
project but they desperately needed funding.
Our idea is to continue to send funds over
there semester by semester.”
Sheik and Tsekouras decided to co-chair
the committee created to lead a fund-raising
effort for the ABFT and hope to be able
to make a donation of a couple thousand
dollars.
“Even a few hundred dollars will really
make a difference there because our dollar
is worth so much with the exchange rate,”
Sheik said.
Starting today Sheik, Tsekouras and other
President’s Ambassadors will be manning
tables throughout campus selling lollipops
for 50 cents each. Each lollipop will
have a ribbon and a small card attached
to it with information on Biehl. Further
information about Biehl and the ABFT will
also be available at the tables.
President’s Ambassadors will also be selling
the lollipops at sporting events and special
events on campus throughout the remainder
of this semester, Sheik said. Students that
are interested in helping can pick up a
bag of lollipops in the President’s Office
in Brotman Hall to start selling today.
Linda Biehl, Amy Biehl’s mother, will be
visiting CSULB Friday and speaking to the
President’s Ambassadors and others interested
in the project at 5 p.m. in the International
House.
“This way the students will have first-hand
knowledge of what they’re working for,”
Maxson said. “It’s nice to know what the
money raised goes to. I am really pleased
students are doing this.”
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