ONE member Tom Brady wore his ONE shirt to a press conference at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA, today.

First question: “What’s your shirt mean?”

Watch the clip here.

Senator John Edward was at Riverbend Middle School in Iowa falls, IA on Friday. I had set up my ONE gear right by the back entrance where the Senator entered. After greeting people who had waited to welcome him, Senator Edwards continued toward the ONE table and stopped to look at the literature. As his staff put on the microphone, I thanked him for his continuous support, and asked if he was wearing the ONE band, he extended his left arm and said, “put one on please.” I slid the wristband on his arm, and he proceeded. He kept the band on during the entire event.

During his speech, he talked about how America has to restore its positive image, “we have to be the light that shines the goodness”, he said. He continued talking about how America has to lead in all fights, “we are in the position to end poverty and stop the spread of disease,” the senator told a crowd of about 120 people. Most of the senator’s staff was wearing ONE bands. One in particular was proud to pose for a picture. I failed to ask his name but the picture speaks for itself.

Thanks to the custodians at Riverbend Middle School for providing me the table and the senator’s staff who helped me to set up.

-Natalie Sugira

EDUN, the socially-conscious clothing company founded by Ali Hewson, Bono and NY clothing designer Rogan Gregory, launched an auction of celebrity customized ONE shirts – and all proceeds will go to ONE!

Head over to EDUNonline.com now to check out the shirts customized by Ben Affleck, Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington, Laila Ali, Chris Daughtry, Raquel Welch, Kirsty Hume, Donovan Leitch and their daughter Violet, Courtney Love, Gwyneth Paltrow, The Citizens Band, Rashida Jones, Liv Tyler, Michelle Monaghan, Julianne Moore, and Waris and to make a bid.

As I say every time, all of the EDUN ONE shirts are made in Lesotho Africa of 100% African cotton and $10 from every shirt purchase goes to ALAFA fund, a program to provide AIDS treatment to factory workers and their families.

The African Children’s Choir came to Concord, New Hampshire, today and ONE Vote ‘08 partnered with them for a special event at the New Hampshire State House!

You may remember the African Children’s Choir as they were at the national ONE Vote ‘08 launch in DC and were also featured on the “American Idol – Idol gives back” show earlier this year.

We were very excited, and before they preformed in the Hall of Flags lobby of the State House, we gave them a tour which included both the New Hampshire Senate and the New Hampshire House of Representatives. There is a great shot of NH State Senator David Gottesman watching as one of the talented singers sat in his Senate seat. Then it was down the marble stairs where over a hundred guests and ONE supporters gathered for our event.

Our ONE Vote ‘08 Republican co-chair Rich Ashooh introduced the State Senate President Sylvia Larson, and NH ONE Ambassador, who greeted the Choir. Then NH Gov. Lynch offered a commendation for the African Children’s Choir and thanked them and ONE Vote ‘08 for our efforts to alleviate poverty and disease in Africa.

The Choir performance was amazing, and the historic Hall of Flags was packed with ONE supporters! We had many NH Representatives, as well as State Senators Maggie Hasson and Robert “Bob” Letourneau. We even saw many representatives from some of the presidential campaigns and staffers from NH US Rep. Hodes’ Office.

Here in New Hampshire, ONE Vote ‘08 has build broad bi-partisan support on behalf of the world’s poorest people. Today was a celebration of our efforts and of all of the world’s children that struggle to overcome global disease and global extreme poverty. We cannot thank the African Children’s Choir enough for their beautiful performance today and for brining their story, and their song to help rally Americans together as ONE!

More to come…even a video of the event!

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer

UPDATE: Watch this clip of the African Children’s Choir taking a quick tour at the New Hampshire State House and their amazing performance – with special introductions from NH Gov. John Lynch and NH Senate President Sylvia Larson!

Yesterday, President George W. Bush announced the 2007 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civil award.

Among the 7 recipients is Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

From the White House’s press release:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has helped heal a country torn apart by conflict through perseverance, personal courage, and an unwavering commitment to building a more hopeful future for her homeland. The first woman elected president of an African nation, she has worked to expand freedom and improve the lives of people in Liberia and across Africa.

Importantly, last week tens of thousands of ONE members took action urging the IMF to provide Liberia the debt relief the institution owed the country 18 months ago. More info on that here and here.

First Lady Laura Bush talked about PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative on the Chris Wallace show on Sunday. Watch the clip here. (Note, it may take a few minutes for the full video to load.)

From the interview:

Laura Bush: But many of the policies that I’ve had the chance to visit, like the PEPFAR, the president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief, or the president’s malaria initiative in Africa, are policies that really came from him, I mean, that he felt like the United States could be effective by making sure a whole lot of people in Africa had the chance to get on antiretrovirals and literally save lives.

And my daughter Barbara was in Kenya and Rwanda this week. She went with the World Food Program. And I visited some World Food Program sites and PEPFAR sites.

And she said that when she was introduced, this made her weep. People would say your dad saved my life, because they’re very aware they’re getting antiretrovirals because of the president’s emergency plan which, of course, is funded by the American people, by the American taxpayer.

Chris Wallace: Nancy Reagan once told me that during her husband’s second term, she felt freer to go out to talk about public policy and her views on them, and you seem to be doing the same thing. Why is that?

Laura Bush: Well, I don’t know that it’s — I mean, I think I felt perfectly free during the first term as well to talk about whatever I was interested in. But I also think it took me a while to realize what a platform I had.

You can read the full transcript here.

Every week, we take the best photo from the ONE Campus Challenge and toss it up on the ONE Blog. But this week, we raised the stakes and made the “photo of the week” worth 10 times more points. As a result we got some great submissions and we need your help deciding the winner.

Go here to vote for this week’s ONE Campus Challenge photo of the week.

Big news on ONE’s front: The ONE Campaign and our sister organization
DATA are merging to become a single organization simply called “ONE”.
The new organization will be led by David Lane, an executive with the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

We hope the merge will combine the best strengths of both organizations
and make us an even more efficient poverty-fighting machine.

Thursday’s first ever “ONE Student | ONE Vote” event at the University of Central Arkansas was a huge success! Politico’s executive editor and co-founder Jim VandeHei moderated the discussion. The conversation leaders included UCA President Lu Hardin, national security expert with the Century Foundation Jeffrey Laurenti, State Senator Gilbert Baker, UCA professor Dr. Elaine Fox and two UCA students – Brooks Cato, who lived in Tanzania, Thailand and Costa Rica, and Emily Daniel, who participated in relief efforts in Central America.

The conversation covered reasons why students should be involved in the upcoming 2008 presidential elections and all of the different ways that involvement could occur. The conversation then shifted to ways we can become involved in our community to help those who most need our help around the world. Both Emily and Brooks have traveled abroad, as had other members of the panel, and had seen the extremely dire circumstances that many in the world’s poorest countries live in.

The panelists took questions from the student audience of more than 150 UCA students. Among the questions was one from a UCA student from Nigeria, who asked what UCA was doing to expand its study abroad programs. UCA President Hardin responded that it has been one of his top priorities to expand the program, and in the five years he’s been
president, the program has more than doubled in size.

Students left ONE Student | ONE Vote energized and enthusiastic about all of the different ways they could be involved in their community, as students and in the upcoming 2008 election.

-Kimberly Cadena