| UT Austin No Dirty Gold Turns Up the Heat for Valentine's Day By Ana Wolfowicz, No Dirty Gold and OxfamUT, University of Texas at Austin
The days preceding and following Valentine's Day were quite busy for OxfamUT. Our week-long No Dirty Gold campaign started on Wednesday, February 8 and finished February 15. We kicked off our No Dirty Gold Valentine's Day campaign with a cross-country phone/ PowerPoint presentation from Oxfam America's Paul Bugala. A room of over 40 OxfamUT members listened attentively as Paul outlined important aspects of gold mining, starting from the mining procedures to its environmental, economic and social effects. The presentation provided the necessary information, and fueled the energy to start educating other students on our campus.
With the help of many excited members, we began tabling the next day. Besides providing materials from the No Dirty Gold Tool Kit, we enlisted the help of the fair trade handicraft store Ten Thousand Villages. They generously loaned us various items so that we could offer fair trade gift alternatives to gold for Valentine's Day. Not only did these colorful items attract many students to our table, it also allowed us to engage in discussion regarding the need for ethical gift alternatives. We also made use of fake gold rings, with which we attached gold facts and the No Dirty Gold Web address. This way, students could leave the table with something more than the flyers other tables had bombarded them with.
Later that night, we screened the film Choropampa: the Price of Gold. The film attracted many OxfamUT members, as well as other students who'd learned about the screening from our table. After the screening, we passed around our class rings petition and discussed many of the film's major themes. One person in attendance brought up the idea of starting a letter-writing campaign based on mining safety. Other members asked about the involvement of the World Bank and various governments in the gold mining industry. The thirty minute film had fueled an even longer dialogue! This is exactly what we had hoped to achieve.
The following week's tabling brought us closer and closer to Valentine's Day. Oxfam America had run a full page "Leader's and Laggards" ad on February 13th, which we printed out and tabled with. The ad provided us with tangible evidence of the campaign's popularity and accessibility. Using the retailer Tiffany's and Co. as "leader" example allowed us to interact with many students who might have otherwise ignored our table. We also passed out our No Dirty Gold Valentine's cards along with more fake gold rings.
By Valentine's Day, almost all our fake rings and literature were gone. Many people appreciated the Valentine's cards, and willingly signed our petition. After our week-long campaign, we'd received over one hundred signatures for our class rings petition! Valentine's Day has just been a stepping stone for No Dirty Gold at UT. Many of our members are currently preparing to work with our alumni association as well as student government in making some important changes regarding class rings. The success of our week-long campaign continues to motivate and inspire future activism on campus. | 
