From a 1st-Time Volunteer
July 29th, 2008 at 1:12 pm | posted by Field
Saturday was a big day for me. Not only was it my first time officially volunteering for the ONE Campaign, it was also my very first live concert! Dierks Bentley, along with Miranda Lambert and Halfway to Hazard, played a concert at the Jones County Fair in Monticello, Iowa. Dierks is a big fan of ONE and invited us to set up a ONE table at the show. There were over 15,000 people there so we spoke to many concert-goers about ONE and how they can get involved.
Many fans were really excited to see Dierks Bentley’s new CD where he is clearly wearing his ONE band in 3 photos! We even talked to Miranda Lamberts father as well as David and Chad, of Halfway to Hazard. They were very supportive of the campaign and even signed up to be members and wore bands!
Everything was going very well until suddenly the sky turned black and a horrible storm rolled in along with tornado warnings. We, unfortunately, had to shut down our table early and wait the storm out under a small pop up tent, for over 2 hours! Since the show was set up on a tractor pull field, we were also completely surrounded by lakes of mud! Finally the show went on and Dierks came out to play! We didn’t get to talk to Dierks but we did notice during the show that he was wearing his ONE band, we even got a wave because he saw our ONE banner. Even though we had to walk through knee deep mud after the show to get back to our cars, it was overall fun to get involved and attend my first concert! I’m glad I could help and I hope to volunteer again in the near future!
-Teale Witherell, ONE member
July 29th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Looks like a fun day, even with the rain!
July 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I loved the pictures. One needs people like you involved. Thanks.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I have no idea who Dierks Bentley is but I thank him and all the others mentioned for supporting the advocacy of ONE.
I also want to thank you, Teale, and your friends for doing exactly what every ONE member needs to be doing - getting out to the American People, at the grassroots level, and talking about ONE and what we all can do, as Americans, to stop the spread of AIDS & extreme poverty in our world.
I have just gotten done sending to our national office the third round of sign ups that I have gotten from my community this year doing exactly what y’all did on Saturday. So far this year, I have sent to our national office over 900 new ONE member sign ups to advocate with us AS ONE !
I have staffed ONE booths in the searing sun, in the rain, in the cold and even when I had a BROKEN LEG so I know what y’all must have gone through in the storm. (smile)
Excellent effort, Teale & friends. Please don’t let this be your last time - Africa needs all of us to STAND UP AS ONE to help it save its future.
ALWAYS ONE in the Spirit, debbie
www.mpwn-uganda.org