The Darfur Heroes program, started in 2007 by the coalition, highlights individuals and groups who play a crucial role in helping end the violence in Darfur through awareness-raising and other efforts. This month, the coalition is honoring students at Atlanta’s Galloway School who organized a Darfur benefit concert with Collective Soul, raising more than $40,000 for Darfur advocacy. Check out their story below:
Our names are Katherine McKerrow and Megan Maziar and 
we are recent graduates of The Galloway School in Atlanta, Georgia. This year we had the pleasure of co-chairing the Collective Soul Benefit Concert for Darfur. Not only did our event bring over 2,300 people together to learn about the crisis in Darfur, but also, with the help of many, we were able to donate an incredible $40,000! Planning the concert was not always an easy or flawless process, but we truly enjoyed every moment of the journey.
In 2006, our teacher Lexi Hunter Fields started a class called Facing History. A significant aspect of the curriculum is to raise awareness about issues that are not just affecting our small community, but also the world community. Throughout the year, we studied atrocious genocides such as The Holocaust, and the genocides that took place in Rwanda and Cambodia. We concluded the year by learning about the current conflict in Darfur, in which the government is murdering or displacing thousands of innocent civilians. As soon as our class began to understand exactly what was taking place in Darfur we knew that we had to take a stand. We decided that raising money for Darfur would go a long way, but raising awareness is what would truly make a difference. Then the idea of a benefit concert came up and it seemed like the perfect way to get both adults AND students involved in the Darfur cause.
So…in the spring of 2007, the first concert kicked off. It was held at The Roxy, a small theater in Atlanta and we raised a few thousand dollars. Local Atlanta bands served as the entertainment and people were able to sign petitions and watch an informational slide show about Darfur. The next year we put together the same type of concert and once again raised a few thousand dollars. Although we were thrilled with the success of the first two concerts, we just knew that The Concert for Darfur had more potential and it being our senior year we really wanted to blow it out of the water! Luckily, Katherine and her family ran into Ed Roland, lead singer of Collective Soul, at a Darfur event.
From there everything seemed to fall into place. Before we knew it we were sitting around a table with some of the most influential people in the Atlanta music scene talking about nothing other than DARFUR! Ed Roland agreed that he and Collective Soul would headline the event and that they would play a full ninety-minute set. Peter Conlan donated The Tabernacle, an amazing concert venue in downtown Atlanta, and Jeff Dauler, co-host and executive producer of Q-100’s “The Bert Show,” the hottest morning radio show in Atlanta, volunteered to be the evenings emcee. In addition to Collective Soul’s performance, we decided that the night would also feature three up-and-coming local bands, which would be judged and ultimately selected by Roland and Jeff Dauler.
Of course, we very quickly realized that in order to sell out a huge venue like The Tabernacle, we needed some help! So, we created the Darfur Student Board that was comprised of 20 students from 16 different metro Atlanta-area high schools. These students helped to raise awareness about Darfur in their individual schools and encouraged the students in their school to attend the concert. Finally, at 7:00 pm on March 27, 2009, The Collective Soul Benefit Concert for Darfur kicked off! Over 2,300 attendees signed post cards for Obama and sported Darfur t-shirts and wristbands while rocking out to some amazing music! Jerry Fowler, president of The Save Darfur Coalition, even recorded a special informational video for us that we showed on the big screens before Collective Soul came on. The Galloway Save Darfur Corporation raised over $40,000 that night and educated hundreds of people in the Atlanta community. The Collective Soul Benefit Concert for Darfur was an experience that will not only endure in our hearts and minds, but also in those of the people who attended. Additionally, The Save Darfur Coalition awarded us with a trip to Washington, DC this week! We will have the opportunity to meet other students involved with Darfur advocacy and to lobby congress. What an incredible ride it has been!
As I write this it hits me that it was 15 years ago today, 15 years ago just a bit after 8 in the evening that we heard an explosion. We were settling in for the evening in our home in Kigali and were completely unaware that the president’s plane (a sweet little jet, courtesy of President Mitterand) had just circled over our house, landing gear down, when a couple of surface-to- air missiles streaked up from somewhere, fired by someone, as it approached the airport and killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, along with everyone else on board. This was the detonator for the worst killing spree of the last century. Not a random killing spree, but a genocide that had been in the making for years with specific plans being meticulously put in place over the previous 2 years.
In compiling the anthology, Dedicated to the People of Darfur: Writings on Fear, Risk and Hope, one of the biggest lessons that we have learned is that we don’t need fame, money or power to rally people together for a cause we believe in and accomplish something meaningful. When we began the project we were graduate students (Jennifer in Communication, Luke in English). We were working our way through our degrees, with little money in our pockets and less in the bank account. Yet, we felt a strong passion to somehow create funds to help those doing work in and for the people of Darfur. Each time we read a New York Times article about the situation there, or in reading 
Darfur advocacy by refurbishing and 
The Darfur Heroes program, started last year by the coalition, highlights individuals and groups who play a crucial role in helping end the violence in Darfur through awareness-raising and other efforts. This month, Save Darfur is honoring the tireless work of Darfuri diaspora leaders in the United States – in particular, 
My name is Joey Cheek and I am the president and co-founder of 
