Adam Kunz Story

Building Understanding (BUDS)

Adam Kunz honors father's memory

I first attended Building Understanding's Everytown (formerly Anytown) in 1995. Everytown is a summer camp program that takes a selection of diverse high school students and encourages them to be leaders at their respective schools. Students stay in cabins with other students who are from completely different backgrounds. Each cabin is an incredibly diverse mix of classes, races and religions. Many of the students have never spent significant time with people who are so different from them. Over the course of the program the staff leads the students in confronting issues like racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying.

Unlike many Everytown delegates, I came from a household that encouraged tolerance, but it took a program like this to give me the courage of my convictions to stand up for these causes in my school. My parents were both very proud of how much this week long program had empowered and almost immediately turned me from a follower to a leader. Last month my father passed away after spending the past year in hospice. My dad and I had many talks over the year about the potential we had to bring this program back and he wanted to do anything he could to help. My dad had spent the past few years in a wheelchair and had become more and more interested in the part of the Everytown program we did on awareness of disabilities. For these reasons, I am dedicating my fundraising to bringing this program back, to his honor.

In 2003 Everytown ran out of funding and was discontinued. We need a program like this now more than ever and after the students finish we can use social media to give them a larger support network then ever before. Luckily, under the leadership of a new director for Building Understanding and a newly formed board we are bringing the program back. As we saw in the first 14 years we ran this program, your contribution will not only affect change with the group of students brought to this summer program. Your donation will also affect exponentially more students at their school when they return with a new found inspiration for leadership and equality.

Sincerely,
Adam Kunz

Thank you for donating in honor of Adam Kunz and his father:

DONATIONS TAX DEDUCTIBLE

Deep thanks to the generous donations by:

Vito & Darlene Cusumano, Susan & Butch Frumin, Mary Grace Effinger, Terry & Linda Pratchett, Debra Licata, Jack & Leigh Schniper, Judy Kunz, Linda Carden, Marcella Klimas, Nina Deeken, Lynn Pemberton, Maria Gonzalez, Sarah Kozinn, Kathleen Mack Antiques, Ellen Badnin, Karen Beyer, Kathleen Herget, Marianna Sullivan, Ellen Green, Alexander Oliver, Marshall Seese Jr, Kathy McKemy, Denny & Alice Pryor, Deborah Johnson, Anonymous Deborah Johnson, Denny & Alice Pryor, Kathy McKemy, Marshall Seese Jr, Alexander Oliver, Ellen Green, Marianna Sullivan, Kathleen Herget, Karen Beyer, Ellen Badnin, Kathleen Mack Antiques, Sarah Kozinn, Maria Gonzalez, Lynn Pemberton, Nina Deeken, Marcella Klimas, Linda Carden, Jack & Leigh Schniper, Judy Kunz, Debra Licata, Terry & Linda Pratchett, Mary Grace Effinger, Susan & Butch Frumin, Vito & Darlene Cusumano, Anonymous