The newly inducted Campus Initiative Alumni Association Council is a group of experienced and passionate leaders who will serve a two year term to cultivate global leaders as they graduate and transition into careers and outlets of higher education. By reminding graduating seniors that the fight to reach zero does not end at graduation, these leaders will cultivate lifelong volunteers who are knowledgeable and passionate about UNICEF’s work and the need to support ongoing, lifesaving efforts. To learn more, contact the UNICEF Campus Initiative Alumni Association Council at campusalumni@unicefusa.org or visit: www.unicefusa.org/alumni.

This weekend the UNICEF Tap Project Team kicked off the first round of regional trainings.

Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City welcomed nearly 250 volunteers!

Volunteers left the regional training equipped with everything they need for the 2012 UNICEF Tap Project Campaign. Volunteers learned about the history of UNICEF, the global water crisis, how to recruit participating restaurants to the campaign and how giving $1 can make a big difference in a child’s life.

On November 6, 64 members of Team UNICEF took to the streets of New York to run in the 2011 ING New York City Marathon. In total, the runners raised over $240,000 to support UNICEF’s general fund programs worldwide. The photos below are of the team taken on the morning of the race and the cheering station in Brooklyn, NY.

The UNICEF Campus Initiative National Council, founded in 2008, strengthens the Campus Initiative program and works closely with the U.S. Fund to represent and support campus clubs around the country. This is their collective account of the three-day Campus Initiative Summit held in New York this month.

The Alumni Association was created in November 2010 by the Alumni Association Council with support from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s Volunteer and Community Partnerships Department to encourage UNICEF Campus Initiative alumni to continue their involvement in UNICEF after college. The current Council is steered by 5 alumni from across the country, who are working professionals or graduate students.

A year after our first meeting, the members of the UNICEF Campus Initiative Alumni Association Council reunited at Riverside Church on Saturday, October 8. We fueled up on coffee, reviewed the schedule, donned our blue UNICEF nametags to get the Campus Summit off to a great start. It was a busy morning of assisting and directing the over 250 student participants between the hostel, the United Nations, and the event venue at Riverside Church.

It started with a simple desire to help out. A simple idea to raise some money. And it quickly grew into a multi-faceted campaign engaging an entire elementary school and raising awareness about the needs of a country and its cultural significance and beauty.