FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cindy Deppe, media relations, 641-269-4834

September 11, 2007

INTERNATIONAL CHILD RIGHTS ACTIVIST TO SPEAK AT GRINNELL

Grinnell College's Peace Studies Program will sponsor a talk on creating social change by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger on Sept. 18 at 4:15 p.m. in Joe Rosenfield '25 Center, Room 101, on the Grinnell College campus.

Kielburger founded Free The Children, the largest network of children helping children through education around the world, and has been recognized for his child rights advocacy with the Nelson Mandela Human Rights Award, the Roosevelt Freedom Medal and the World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child, also known as the Children's Nobel Prize. His Grinnell talk, "Me to We: Creating Positive Social Change," will be based on his New York Times bestseller by a similar title, "Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World," which encourages volunteerism, service to others and social involvement.

Under Kielburger's leadership at age 24, Free The Children has built more than 450 primary schools providing daily education to more than 40,000 children around the world. He also co-founded Leaders Today, which empowers young people with leadership education tools to affect positive social change.

Kielburger's talk is co-sponsored by the Grinnell Peace Studies Program, Forest Creatures Entertainment and Grinnell College alumnus Leonard Kurz. For more information about the Grinnell Peace Studies Program, go to http://www.grinnell.edu/academic/peacestudies/. The Rosenfield Center is located at 1115 8th Ave. on the Grinnell College campus.