The Norwich Record (Springfield, MA) May 11, 2005 Norwich Leaders Join Campaign to Sniff Out Landmines
On April 29, 2005, Vermont Governor
Jim Douglas, former National Security
Advisor Anthony Lake, and Marcelle
Leahy joined Norwich University
Chairman of the Board General Gordon
R. Sullivan ’59 and President Richard
Schneider to launch a statewide landmine
awareness campaign that will
provide Vermont schoolchildren with
an opportunity to help children in
nations where deadly landmines
remain buried.
The star of the kick-off
was Rosa, an 11-year-old Belgian Malinois that
can sniff out landmines.
Rosa, her handler, and various
VIPs traveled across Vermont during
the final week of April courtesy of the
Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI), a
nonprofit organization founded by
General Sullivan two years after he stepped down
as Army Chief of Staff. The Marshall Legacy
Institute entourage visited elementary and middle
schools from Lyndon to Burlington to Dorset.
The principal goal of MLI’s Vermont Children
Against Mines Program (CHAMPS) campaign is to
increase young people’s awareness of the human
and economic consequences of landmines and
generally to enhance their spirit of global citizenship.
Raising funds to purchase and train mine detection
dogs is the secondary objective of
CHAMPS. For as little as 25 cents, every K-12
student had the opportunity to participate in the
fundraising initiative.
MLI has established a
goal to raise $20,000 in Vermont, enough to
purchase, train, and transport one landminesniffing
dog — to be named “Vermont” — to a
nation where landmines are still killing and
maiming people.
More than 50 million unexploded landmines
remain buried in at least 70 nations across the
globe. Worldwide, a person is killed or maimed
by a landmine every 22 minutes. Mines kill
hundreds of thousands of wild and domesticated
animals each year.
“Our focus is on getting the mines out of the
ground and really doing something to rid the
world of this scourge and enable people who live
in villages in faraway places to get back out into
their fields, to get back into the countryside
where they live, and to lead productive, safe
lives,” said General Sullivan.
President Schneider said he wants to expand
CHAMPS to Vermont colleges and universities.
He said Norwich University will work with the
Vermont Campus Compact to develop ideas
for bringing CHAMPS to campuses during the
fall semester.