Callie M. Strother is employing angels to help build four orphanages in three different countries.

The senior public relations major and her classmates organized a contact table in Plemmons Student Union last week to help raise money for Orphans to Ambassadors, a non-profit organization which aims to operate sustainable orphanages in refugee-affected regions of the world.

Part of Strother’s campaign, which stemmed from communication professor Lynn Gregory’s fundraising class, includes selling $1 angels, a strategy she modeled after grocery stores that sell balloons for children’s hospitals.

“Originally, we had four fundraising ideas,” Strother said, “but we only had three-and-a-half to four months to make these ideas come to life, so the angels were a cheap, quick way of raising some money but meanwhile, still rewarding.”

Erika L. Anderson, who worked alongside Strother and three other classmates to plan the fundraiser, said the dollar cost was a way to make the program affordable to students.

“It takes about $50 to send a child to school, and we know the college audience doesn’t really have that money to spend,” the senior public relations major said, “so the $1 angels were a great way to fundraise but also get the word out.”

The Seattle-based Orphans to Ambassadors is the brainchild of Jake Gentry, class of 2009 Appalachian State University alumnus.

“I traveled to Tanzania for the summer of 2008 to conduct interviews and research, and it was there that I noticed a large amount of street children that were left behind after the refugees left,” Gentry said. “So that kind of morphed into the idea to create an orphanage for these children that was completely self-sufficient on energy, food and water.”
Gentry, along with fellow Appalachian alumna Suzanne Fossum, initially planned to build an orphanage in Tanzania, but temporarily put the idea off after deciding to conduct more research and develop the idea further.

“We are now organizing four orphanages in Tanzania, Sierra-Leone, and Haiti,” Gentry said, “but it’s not just about giving them funding. It’s about giving them long-term, sustainable solutions that last longer than a year or two.”
Other than the $1 angels, Strother and Anderson’s group also sold T-shirts and bags that boasted the Orphans to Ambassadors logo.

“Jake was more than happy to send us the bags and T-shirts because like us, he’s very passionate about getting the word out about what we’re trying to do,” Strother said.

For more information about Orphans to Ambassadors or to donate, visit orphanstoambassadors.org.

Story: LENA ALOUMARI, Lifestyles Reporter