The Harry Potter Alliance and Reachout.com Announce the Dementor Horcrux
The Harry Potter Alliance and Inspire USA Foundation's Reachout.com uses social media to give young people an outlet to celebrate their favorite book series and deal with difficult emotions.
- (1888PressRelease) December 03, 2010 - Boston, MA - The second Horcrux in the Deathly Hallows Campaign illustrates the many ways people cope with the Dementors of the real world.
Yesterday, the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA), in partnership with the Inspire USA Foundation's website ReachOut.com, announced the second stage of the Deathly Hallows Campaign (DHC), the Dementor Horcrux. In Harry Potter, Dementors are dark creatures that drain a person of all happiness, leaving them only with their worst feelings and memories. They create fear, despair and misery wherever they go, and can only be fought with the spell "Expecto Patronum," creating a patronus. During the month of December, the HPA will work together as a community to create their own patronuses by submitting art, through social media, of how they cope with the Dementors in their lives, including videos, paintings, poetry, pictures, and more. The art will be submitted and posted through the HPA's Tumblr.
"Too often depression, the blues, anxiety, bullying, and other real world Dementors are seen as taboo and people are scared to talk about them. We want that to change," said Executive Director Andrew Slack. "Discussing how we all deal with our own struggles can give strength to others going through hard times and shows that everyone faces difficult issues at one point or another. For months now bullying and suicide have been consistently in the news we want the youth of the world to know that they are not alone and can get through anything."
The Inspire USA Foundation/ReachOut.com will be providing information and resources on the HPA website for young people who may be going through a tough time as well as how to help a friend. Reach Out and the HPA have also partnered with Boys Town National Hotline 1-800-448-3000, which provides support for youth in crisis by phone 24/7 as well as through online chat.
"We are thrilled to partner with the Harry Potter Alliance to promote ReachOut.com through the Dementor Horcrux campaign," said Jack Heath, founder and CEO of the Inspire USA Foundation. "I can't think of a better metaphor for overcoming hard times than beating back a Dementor with the power of creativity combined with the information, resources and inspiring stories on ReachOut.com."
The Dementor Horcrux is the second of the DHC, a nine-month campaign against seven real Horcruxes (based off of the Harry Potter films). Each Horcrux represents a real world injustice. The first Horcrux focused on unjust wages. Petition signatures to get Time Warner and NBC Universal to change all Harry Potter chocolate to Fair Trade have amassed to over 12,000 in one month and were featured on NPR, ABC, and the New York Times. In June 2011 the campaign will transition to a final battle against all seven Horcruxes simultaneously. The Deathly Hallows Campaign will come to a close in July 2011 during the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, culminating 9 months of effort by the entire Harry Potter fan community, partners, and the Harry Potter Alliance. Highlights of the planned Horcruxes include LGBT inequality, economic inequality, and illiteracy.
ABOUT THE HP ALLIANCE
The HP Alliance (www.thehpalliance.org) is a 501c3 nonprofit that engages Harry Potter fans in social activism. With over 70 active chapters and 40 volunteer staff, the HPA has donated five cargo planes of supplies to Haiti, 55,000 books, protection for thousands in Darfur, and made huge strides in anti-genocide, LGBT, and media reform advocacy, and more. Covered in hundreds of major publications and praised by JK Rowling, Harry Potter celebrities, Paul Farmer, and a slew of NGO's, the HPA recently came in first place in the Chase Bank Community Giving Contest on Facebook winning $250,000.
"When asked about the group, Rowling practically levitates off the couch, spilling her coffee along the way. "It's incredible, it's humbling, and it's uplifting to see people going out there and doing that in the name of your character," she says. She's especially pleased by the group's choice of mission, and the old Amnesty International worker in her surfaces. "What did my books preach against throughout? Bigotry, violence, struggles for power, no matter what. All of these things are happening in Darfur. So they really couldn't have chosen a better cause." -Time Magazine, December 2007
ABOUT INSPIRE USA FOUNDATION AND REACHOUT.COM
The Inspire USA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization based in San Francisco with a mission to help millions of young people lead happier lives. ReachOut.com is the Inspire USA Foundation's primary online platform and avenue of outreach and provides evidence-based information and supports, real life stories and the ability to connect and contribute in a safe and supported community.
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