Last week, we posted about two LI-affiliated student groups winning Human Life Alliance and Students for Life of America's 2009 Campus Impact Award.  Here is an update on what each group did in order to receive the award.

The first place winner, Purdue Students for Life, is an LI-affiliated student group.  The group raised funds to insert 17,500 copies of the pamphlet We Know Better Now into the daily student newspaper, The Exponent. 

The insert sparked quite the controversy on campus, with angry students sending letters to the editor to The Exponent.  There was also positive feedback as one pleased student wrote HLA a warm hearted response saying:

THANK YOU! Today, March 11, a copy of your magazine was placed inside of every student newspaper, the Exponent, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. I don't know who organized this or how any of it came about, I just saw it today and my heart was overflowing!

The second place winner was the University of New Mexico's Students for Life group.  The group used HLA's Campus Impact Program to recruit and to distribute copies of We Know Better Now and Imposed Death.  The event was wildly successful and resulted in a 70% increase in group membership and a move to a larger venue to hold meetings.

The third place winner, Carnegie Mellon University's Respect Life Club, is also an  LI-affiliated student group.  The group took a famous campus landmark, known as "The Fence", and painted it with messages like "Are you on the fence about abortion?" and other information to draw attention to abortion.  "The Fence" is a landmark that has been painted on for years.  In order to paint on it, a group needs to follow certain rules.  One of the rules is that in order to keep "The Fence" at least 2 group members need to be there at all times.  The group sat out by "The Fence" for 4 days and handed out copies of We Know Better Now to raise awareness of the tragedy of abortion.

President Obama is scheduled to give the commencement address at Notre Dame on May 17, 2009. Leadership Institute CLP groups at Notre Dame have created ND Response,  coalition of conservative and pro-life student groups oppose the appearance of a pro-abortion official at the Catholic university. ND Response states:
...objection is not a matter of political partisanship, but of President Obama’s hostility to the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life at its earliest stages. Further, the University’s decision runs counter to the policy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops against honoring pro-choice politicians. [They will not] sit by idly while the University honors someone who believes that an entire class of human beings is undeserving of the most basic of all legal rights, the right to live.

For more information on ND Response and the events surrounding Obama's commencement speech, check out their website.