On inauguration day, artists, musicians and actors gathered together for Love-a-thon, a counter-program during Trump’s inauguration, which, so far, has raised $200,000 for Planned Parenthood, Earthjustice, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Love-a-thon was a three-and-a-half hour Facebook Live event. Celebrities, including Judd Apatow, Jane Fonda, Jamie Lee Curtis, David Duchovny, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Rashida Jones, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Tim Robbins, performed and spoke out in pre-recorded videos that played throughout the show. Jesse Tyler Ferguson spoke about LGBTQ+ rights, George Takei shared his experience growing up on a Japanese internment camp during World War II, and David Duchovny sang with his band, Weather.
“I got involved with Love-a-thon through Sammy Koppelman,” Duchovny said. Koppelman, Fieldston Class of 2014, created Love-a-thon with friends Alex Godin, Dan Schipper, and Kara Silverman.
“I am developing a project with Amy Koppelman,” Duchovny said, “and her son, Sammy, organized Love-a-thon, which was not going to be an anti-programming event, but a counter-programming event to the inauguration, that donated to worthwhile charities. It sounded like a great idea. So I went down to a studio in Brooklyn with a couple of guys from the band that I play in and recorded a short version of one of my songs for the event.”
“I took the first semester off from Harvard to work on Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the digital content strategist,” Koppelman said. “The campaign ended and we obviously lost, but I woke up the next morning, and as tiring as the campaign was, I knew that the fight was just beginning. I looked for as many ways as I could to get involved. Alex Godin came to me and said, ‘I think we should run an internet telethon.’ We were just four random kids with little expertise in the domain, but we had an idea that touched a lot of people. We wanted to channel people’s anxieties on inauguration day into positive action and give them the chance to make a difference.”
The team called everyone they knew and blindly reached out to others to help them strategize and finetune their concept. Ultimately, they partnered with Planned Parenthood, Earthjustice and the ACLU with a plan to raise money to help these three organizations defend civil liberties and marginalized communities over the course of the next four years. They secured Crowdrise as their online fundraising partner and Upworthy as their media partner.
“The charities we worked for were incredibly helpful in finding celebrities to participate,” Koppelman said. “They reached out to all of their contacts, and then finally I convinced Judah Friedlander to host. I went to the Comedy Cellar late at night and I spent four hours there trying to convince a comedian to join our event. Judah took a chance and basically put his faith in a kid, and he ended up making the show work. He is an incredible comedian and an amazing activist. He walks the walk every day.”
Love-a-thon was a big hit. One-and-a-half million people tuned in, raising more than $200,000 for the three charities in just the first three days. They will continue to accept donations through January 27.
“More importantly,” Koppelman said, “we gave people a means of turning their anger into positive action on one of the darkest days in recent American history. We hope to give people the message that going forward they can act and support these organizations rather than just sit back.”
“During history class on Friday, I watched Trump’s inauguration,” Krista Delany (IV) said. “Next period during my free, I watched the livestream of Love-a-thon on Facebook. All of the aggravation that had slowly built up inside of me was finally set free. Love-a-thon made me realize that I was not alone and that together we had a voice that deserved to be heard.”
Love-a-thon would not have happened without the persistence and drive of Koppelman, Godin, Schipper and Silverman. For Koppelman, this desire to be an agent of change started at Fieldston.
“One thing Fieldston teaches you is that, if there is something you don’t like, you have the power to go make a difference,” Koppelman said. “The day after the election a lot of people felt paralyzed and didn’t know what to do. But Fieldston taught me that the fight goes on, and even if you lose, you have to bounce back. Fieldston definitely shaped the way that I tackle challenges and taught me that feelings of discomfort and anxiety can turn into positive action.”
