And San Francisco Stands Up….

Oct 19th, 2007 4:12 PM UTC
By Josh Chernila, ONE Online Communities Coordinator

It was a beautiful day that moved into a beautiful night. 120 people gathered at San Francisco’s Civic Center in front of City Hall to Stand Up and Speak Out for the millennium goals for two hour program. 12 community groups, including The Unity Foundation, IDEX, CARE, RESULTS, and Bay Area Darfur Coalition were there to provide outreach. We had the help and kind donations from so many people for the stage, to the lighting equipment and the sound system. The event ran really smoothly with the help of ONE members Kelli Schwertfeger, Jamie Miller, Cynthia Vallor, Allison Ewing and Kathleen Schumacher.

The night began with a welcome by the event organizers and ONE members Brian Webster and Lori Saltveit. Emmit Powell and The Gospel Elite followed with a half hour of inspirational music and and singing. At 7:00, Joshua Fryvecind from Zoo Station, Sarah Dotlich from local group IDEX that partners with grassroots groups in developing countries and Joel Rubinstein from RESULTS San Francisco Bay Area read the Stand Up pledge that was read by millions around the world. At this point, the crowd stood up with our readers. The evening wrapped up with 45 minutes of U2 music provided by the awesome tribute band Zoo Station.

Kelli met Robert Lewis at the event. Here’s what she had to say about her meeting with him, “I was so inspired by his heart. He visited Cambodia recently and could hardly enjoy himself while there because of the extreme poverty, but he was inspired by a few ONE members he met while there. He read about our Stand Up event in the newspaper and took a bus to SF from his home in San Mateo. He signed the ONE declaration last night, took some information to read at home, and has joined our local ONE volunteer list.”

In addition to a great crowd of supports standing up against global poverty, local news station, KTVU Channel 2 and KCBS AM San Francisco radio covered the event.

See KTVU Evening News Coverage here. (Requires Windows Media Player)

TAGS: Global Day of Action Against Poverty