With the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis and Black Lives Matter protests occurring within Chicago, keeping Chicago’s South Side communities safe is at the forefront of many people’s minds. University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division graduate students Christina Roman and DeQuantarius (DJ) Speed came up with a way to support the ongoing protest movements while aiding in public health and safety at the same time. Speed and Roman created “protester packs” — a volunteer-based, grassroots project to provide kits of basic supplies to those protesting in Chicago.
“We realized as UChicago students we have access to a network of powerful people and we wanted to turn that power into direct community impact and direct support for the movement to protect black lives,” said Roman, a graduate student in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Roman and Speed, a graduate student in cell and molecular biology, shared the news with friends, colleagues and neighbors on social media, and received an outpouring of support. Their original goal was to create 150 to 200 individual protest packs, but in less than 48 hours, the fundraiser they launched through GoFundMe raised over $10,000 to put towards obtaining supplies. Additionally, many large organizations they reached out to for support donated supplies directly. The University of Chicago Medicine and other organizations donated thousands of facemasks to help aid their project.
