Harry Potter is alive and well today in the world of Muggles. Fitchburg State University’s The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA, for short) ~ a new chapter of the association ~ is working just like Dumbledore’s Army to spread awareness about poverty, global warming, and a host of injustices, both global and local, threatening both Muggles and our planet.

Patience Morrow, a junior at Fitchburg State, began the HPA after noticing a blurb about it following one of the Harry Potter films. After doing her own research on the group, she discovered that the closest chapter was in Cape Cod, so she decided that she would start a chapter at Fitchburg. She met some opposition because some were worried “…it would be all about dressing up and pretending to be wizards,” she says, “but that is not what it’s really about.”

So what is it about? “It’s more than Harry Potter ~ its awareness.” The HPA sponsors new campaigns with a different theme each month Morrow and her team are working on the “Hunger Is Not a Game” campaign. They just raised money through an April 18 bake sale and gave the proceeds to the Boston Food Bank. The group has previously worked on a human trafficking campaign in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They have taken the widely popular Harry Potter books and used them as the hook to get people’s attention, alerting their peers and others about what’s going on around us, and how we can help.

The Fitchburg group is hoping for the coming year to hold a Yule Ball to get even more people interested in the group and increase their base and visibility here in the Worcester County area. The one point Morrow wanted to make sure I took away from this interview was that “You don’t have to be a fan; you don’t even have like Harry Potter to get involved. It’s a great cause and I hope that when I graduate it will continue to get students involved.”

For those who are interested, the HPA has a website that lists membership and group meetings: www.thehpalliance.org. Remember: “Differences of Habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” ~ Albus Dumbledore

Photo by Emily Lane Senior,  photo major @ Fitchburg State

From left to right:
Vice President  ~ Haley Mchatton
Crystal Correia
President ~ Patience Morrow
Treasurer ~ Casey Leger