The End It Movement has taken college campuses by storm over the last two years, working towards shining a light on modern day slavery.
Many students have probably seen the markings of the red X around campus, the community and online. These red X’s symbolize the End It Movement campaign. Many events have been held on KSU campus to promote this movement and inform students of the 27 million enslaved people worldwide.
The Passion City Church in Atlanta created this movement not only to bring awareness to worldwide slavery, but to also shine a light on slavery happening close to home. Atlanta is the American hub for juvenile commercial sexual exploitation. According to the End It Movement, in the United States there is an estimated 100,000-300,000 children involved in prostitution. The average child is first sold into slavery between the age of 11 and 14 years old.
The End It Movement road team visited KSU on March 11, 2013 to inform students of this growing movement and the need for financial support to help fight slavery out of the shadows. Also hosted on the Campus Green, students raised awareness by camping out for 27 hours to represent the 27 million people in slavery.
Sophomore and Marketing major Jacob Riescher attended the event and commented on the passion his fellow students had.
“It was amazing to see college students coming together to support a great cause. My favorite part was when Andrew Hogan [KSU student] lead fellow students in playing music and singing song, it was very moving,” Riescher said.
The Daily Grind coffee shop is a local contributor who is helping raise funds and awareness for the cause with the Daily Grind original coffee, Whit’s Victory Coffee. This was created to generate funds for the movement, with $1 of every purchased bag going toward the cause.
“3 billion pounds of coffee are consumed in the U.S. every year. If 1% of that was Whit’s Victory Coffee we would raise $30 million every year for the fight against modern day slavery,” Daily Grind owner Kevin Selllors said.
Currently Whit’s Victory Coffee has been sold in 24 states and counting. This coffee can be purchased either at the Daily Grind or online at whitsvictorycoffee.com. Some notable people who support Whit’s Victory Coffee are American Idol artist Sean Michel, Mac Powell of Christian band Third Day, spoken word and performance artist Levi The Poet, and the band For Today.
