MEDIA ADVISORY
Ken Rutherford will appear at a July 15 news conference at the University of Colorado at Boulder as part of the Adopt-A-Minefield initiative within Colorado.
Rutherford, who grew up in Boulder and attended the University of Colorado, lost both his legs when a vehicle he was driving in Somalia ran over a landmine.
Rutherford will speak as part of the 10 a.m. news conference on the east side of the University Club on the CU-Boulder campus. The University Club is located southeast of the University Memorial Center, which is at the corner of Broadway and Euclid Avenue. Parking will be available across the street from the club in the Euclid Autopark.
Rutherford, currently on a teaching fellowship at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., is a co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network, the first international organization for landmine victims by landmine victims. He also is involved in follow-up work related to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
The Colorado initiative of the Adopt-A-Minefield is hoping to raise $99,000 to clear a minefield in Mozambique. It costs 10 to 30 times more to clear a landmine than to plant one. An estimated 60 million to 100 million landmines are buried in 70 countries.
The Colorado initiative is supported by the United Nations Association-Boulder Chapter, Boulder Friends of UNICEF, United Nations Association-Colorado Division and the Denver Area Committee for UNICEF.
As part of a 7 p.m. event July 16 in the CU-Boulder Sibell Wolle Fine Arts Building, Rutherford also will speak on "A World Safe from Land Mines: Why Americans Should Care." Donations are suggested.
For information contact John Beynon at (303) 543-9236.