Students have been seeing a lot of green on campus lately, even though snow and, more recently, frozen mud have been covering the ground.
But from shirts to posters to advertisements in newspapers, green signs have littered classroom buildings and kiosks to carry a simple message: “I Stand with Dave.”
University of Wisconsin senior basketball player David Mader is standing by his Christian faith to promote the message of a moral existence and life after death. He is serving as the campaign model.
On his website, www.istandwithdave.com, Maer proclaims his faith, offering his beliefs in Jesus as well as quotes from the Bible.
For a short period during the passing time between classes around noon Thursday, Mader lent his local star power and spoke of his past experiences and beliefs on Library Mall.
Brian Haydon, a UW senior, stood by at the event and heard Mader speak. Hayden believes the goal of the speech was to open up religious dialogue.
“He spoke to a few hundred people and made a statement of his faith,” Haydon said, adding he is involved with “I Stand with Dave” because he believes religion should be freely discussed.
“Religion is one of the few taboos on this campus,” Haydon said. “It was worth it if I caused just one person to think about what they believe.”
Haydon said Mader used to attend church services as a child but strayed from faith in his teenage years. When a friend of his had personal problems, Mader returned to God and his religion.
Melanie Contrestan, a UW sophomore, noted the weeklong buildup to the talk on Library Mall was not associated with only one sect of Christianity, but was meant to influence curious students of all walks of life.
“It’s a volunteer ecumenical effort,” Contrestan said. She said she knew of five or six organizations working in concert for the Christian event, along with Catholic and Protestant churches.
She also commented on the obscurity of the green “I Stand with Dave” shirt she wore today.
“I don’t think people would come up and ask me questions if I wore an ‘I Stand with Jesus’ T-shirt,” Contrestan said, adding that students would possibly feel intimidated to ask about the message in such a situation. “It really opens up curiosity. I’ve talked to about eight people (about the campaign).”
Contrestan, who works at St. Paul’s University Catholic Center’s front desk, said she did not think the high visibility of the green shirts would make Christians more apt to network with each other because “[Christians] are already drawn to each other.”
“But I do think it is an encouragement for [other Christians],” Contrestan said.
Although she believes God has the power to touch people without her involvement, she enjoys the idea that her involvement in the campaign may have reached others.
