Announcing the launch of OCC TV, starring VJs Erin Eegan and Weldon Kennedy. As long as it gets picked up by the OCC station- I think you can expect to see more;)
It was a thrill to have Mike McCurry in town last week. When Mike got off the plane Monday evening we marched him right across the street to our ONE Candidates Forum at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
The forum was a great success. We invited representatives from every presidential campaign to speak to ONE volunteers and UNLV students about their candidates’ plans to fight poverty and global disease. Participation was great and it was fantastic for our volunteers to hear from each campaign. We signed up 30 new members and UNLV’s ONE club was able to recruit about a dozen new members as well.
Mike was our keynote speaker and discussed his advisory role with ONE and some of the amazing success stories ONE has witnessed since it’s inception. He highlighted how refreshing it is to be involved with a campaign that that unites people from all political parties, quite a change from his former role as White House Press Secretary.
The following day we ran all over town, from a press roundtable at R&R partners with Nevada’s ONE Vote 08 co-chair Billy Vassiliadis, to filming Face to Face with Jon Ralston. Mike finished up the day by speaking with UNLV Law School students and faculty. Over 45 students signed the declaration.
If only we could clone Mike and have him campaigning for ONE in NV every day.
ONE members traveled to see Senator Joe Biden at a coffee shop in Iowa on Friday. After the senator delivered a speech, a couple ONE members and I had a chance to speak with him about ONE and debt relief.
Senator Biden pointed out that he took the lead on some of the first debt relief proposals in the Senate and continues to support debt relief to struggling countries. Before departing for his next stop he put on a band and posed for a quick picture.
On Monday the PACCAR Medical Education Center had a groundbreaking
ceremony in Chillicothe, Ohio. According to speakers at the ceremony,
the new educational facility will address such issues as advancements in
technology, the shortage in health care workers, economic development
and quality of life. It seemed to be a perfect setting to discuss our
efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. I brought ONE
Chillicothe’s balladeer bard Josh Ray and Regional Organizer Katie
Andrews–together, we had a perfect trio to talk to Congressman Zack
Space, 18th District, Ohio, who was in attendance.
Congressman Space and his District Director Ken Engstrom sat down with
us and discussed the Child Survival Act, the Education For All Act and
the Jubilee Act.
Congressman Space said he agreed with the spirit of our cause and that
he would look over the information packet we gave him. He also said that
he became impressed with the ONE Campaign after Bono met with the
freshman of the 110th Congress, and that he is proud of the great work
that ONE Chillicothe members are doing in the 18th District.
Students at Lincoln Christian College set up a Shantytown on their campus to draw attention to the living conditions of the world’s poor on the Oct 17 Global Day of Action Against Poverty. Ten students took turns “living” in the boxes throughout the day and reading the Stand Up pledge to fellow students and collecting signatures on the ONE Declaration.
By the end of the day they collected 130 signatures on the petition – more than 10% of their entire student body! The local paper also covered the event so the community could see how the students were taking a stand for our poorer neighbors.
On Monday, October 15, Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas became the 123, 124, 125th “ONE Cities.”
While many may think of the Las Vegas Valley as “what happens here stays here” — Monday’s event proved otherwise. Our elected leaders stepped up to the plate and asked the over 2 million citizens of their respective cities to do the same.
Mayor Goodman of Las Vegas explained the reason he has become such an avid supporter, “I tell you that Las Vegas is a microcosm of the world – we welcome tourists and new residents from all over the world. We are doing our part today to add our collective voice to say enough is enough.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
-Megan Jones
Pictured above: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Clark County Commission Lawrence Weekly, Henderson Mayor Gibson, Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce CEO Kara Kelley
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
