Kerem Ozguz
The Activist Camp Counselor
Most people can’t say that their job requires them to make the world a better place, but Kerem Ozguz isn’t most people. As an executive at Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) — an organization founded by former QB (ahem) and activist Colin Kaepernick to promote racial justice and empower Black and Brown communities — Kerem leads the company’s transformative partnership with Ben & Jerry’s. In 2021, the ice cream brand released a non-dairy flavor called Change the Whirled, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to support KYRC. In 2022, those funds went to providing more than 30,000 meals, backpacks, masks, and ice cream to the food insecure via monthly activations across the country, and water to aid the water crisis in Jackson, MS. They also resumed running in-person camps for the first time since the pandemic and paid for autopsies of victims of police brutality.
Projects
Building on its success with Ben & Jerry’s in 2022, the Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) decided to kick off 2023 with a bash held in Phoenix during Super Bowl LVII. While inside the stadium fans were rocking out to Rihanna’s epic halftime show, the organization hosted a high-impact Change the Whirled Neighborhood Block Party at the Black- and worker-owner Grassrootz Bookstore. The community gathered for the street celebration, which was filled with free food, entertainment and art installations by Brandan “BMIKE” Odums and Douglas Miles. And of course there were plenty of free scoops of the Change the Whirled ice cream to go around!
