Our activities have ranged from sending birthday cards to the missing Tibetan Panchem Lama, to handing out postcards at the screening of the movie Missing, from flying Kites for Rights in Niagara-on-the-Lake, to selling security whistles for our Blow the Whistle on Violence campaign.
Each December 10th, we honour Human Rights Day by having students and the public participate in our Campaign of Hope. We sign cards which are sent to prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders in countries around the world.
Our first fundraiser was a garage sale in the parking lot of St. John's United Church in 1981. Since then we've hosted several fundraising events including a Fall Super Sale at Central Baptist Church, Arts for Rights Auctions, Taste for Justice events, and most recently we participated in a fundraiser with Chapters, Oakville Town Centre.
Group 75 initiated the first Amnesty raffle of Robert Batman prints in 1984. It was so successful that we suggested that the national office take over the raffle. Since then it has produced over $250,000 in revenue, and continues to be part of the national fundraising strategy.
Our outreach to Oakville has included selling roses at the Town Centre, celebrating our 20th anniversary with a cake at City Hall, and hosting a poster display from the Artists’ Network. We have spoken at schools, churches, and conferences, and have hosted such speakers as Dr. Venturelli, a torture victim from Chile, Roger Clark, the past Secretary General of AI Canada, and present Secretary General Alex Neves. In 2009 we held a letter writing event at the Oakville Library as part of Amnesty's annual Write for Rights campaign.
We continue to encourage young people to examine human rights by providing resources through public and secondary school libraries.