Everyone has issues that they hold close to their hearts. The big issues, the ones we fight for, argue for, campaign for, and some die for. For some it’s feminism, getting our youth into the outdoors, or the state of the global environment; for some it’s keeping art and humanities prevalent in our schools. For Senior and co-president of Le Moyne’s Psychology Club, Kennedy Langlois, it’s raising awareness for Autism and donating to the research that surrounds it.

Last year, Langlois was able to raise over $2,500 for Central New York Autism Society, which is a chapter of Autism Society of America, in the name of her younger brother Liam who was diagnosed with Autism. Langlois accomplished well over her goal of $500 using the online donation site, FirstGiving. This year, Langlois and the LMC Psych Club have teamed up to hopefully reach a larger audience and raise more money. Their goal this year is $2,500.

To any college student, counting pennies and nickels to buy a beer at the pub or a bag of carrots from Price Chopper, $2,500 sounds pretty steep. But let us never forget that we, as humankind, have an incredible power on our side: we have numbers. We have the ability to, each and every one of us, make small contributions. So there are close to 3,000 students at Le Moyne. If just the students (JUST THE STUDENTS, not including family members, professors, and faculty and staff) pledge to contribute just one dollar, that’s roughly $3,000 right there, already over the initial goal.

I think we have a tendency to view ourselves as solitaries way too much. We have tendencies to clutch onto the mindset that we are too small, too powerless, too individual to make great change. We forget that we belong to litanies of communities, and within these communities we can accomplish great things, we can catalyze incredible change.

So, please, my fellow Le Moyne Students, before turning the page on this article, consider what you can do. Yes, you, one person, when you act as part of a community, when you consider change on a human  level. If one dollar is all you have, then give a dollar, because 3,000 one-dollar bills…well, you do the math.

We are not silenced in our individuality. In fact, quite antithetically, we are an incredible force when we each individually contribute, no matter how small, to a greater cause. Start today and join Langlois and the LMC Psych Club in the fight against Autism, which currently affects 1 in every 45 children.

 

To donate visit https://www.firstgiving.com/team/321607