Check out this great post from Dawn Shelton in Oklahoma City who recently had a chance to volunteer at a Music Builds Tour stop– and brought her family along for the ride! There are only 3 stops left on the tour – tonight in Minneapolis, tomorrow in Kansas City, and Sunday in Denver – so sign up to volunteer now!

-Chris Scott

It’s one thing to wear the ONE bracelet. It’s quite another to approach strangers at a concert and talk to them about ONE and the campaign to end global poverty. But we did it last night, all five of us, mom, dad and our 11, 9 and 6 year old kids! Admittedly, I got the “eye roll” from my husband, Stan, when I excitedly told him, “Hey, we’ve been invited to volunteer for ONE at the Music Builds concert.” You know, invited through one of those ONE emails from Josh Peck that always make me think he’s writing JUST to me (One to One). But Stan went along with it, partly because he knows our kids LOVE Jars of Clay and Switchfoot and his wife LOVES Third Day. And because we all support the ONE campaign. So we signed up, and showed up! ONE sent us talking points for the night, and we all practiced what we might say.

Talking point: “ONE is a grassroots effort to make poverty history.” (Do you kids know what grassroots is?)
Talking point: “ONE gets us all involved to stop children from going hungry.” (Discussion about how full our pantry and freezer are full at our house, even with those vegetables the kids don’t like, and how many families around the world, and even in our own city, barely survive on rice and potato soup).
Talking point: “ONE helps let everyone know that people don’t have to die from diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS if they have proper medical care.” (Then an age-appropriate explanation of AIDS).

We got to the concert early, got our t-shirts (Thanks ONE!), met the other volunteers who were all way cool and hip and got a brief training from the ONE staffers Libby and Michele who were also way cool and hip. Then we armed ourselves with clipboards, ONE bands, flyers and let the excitement build for the doors to open. Our kids secretly hoped that some of the Switchfoot guys would come to our table … but they tried to remain focused.

When the thousands of people started flowing into The Ford Center, it was time for us to talk the talk. And it was the moment that I realized that I was way in over my head. These people won’t even make eye contact with me! Yeah. A 40-year-old Mom with a clipboard! YIKES. But I swallowed hard and was reminded that this was payback for all of the petition signers, and solicitors that I have ignored at the mall, the fair or the festivals that we go to.

But we were not hawking a cheap phone plan or trying to sell timeshare vacation condos. We didn’t want money or social security numbers. We wanted them to join ONE … to help raise awareness about the poor, the hungry and the sick and to DO something about it. In this case, signing the declaration to join ONE. I first talked to a guy from a local Christian radio station to sign up. Our daughter, Lydia, was thrilled to hand him his ONE bracelet.

We were fired up. That is until we looked back to the ONE booth where Stan and our boys were working. They were surrounded with eager people waiting to sign up. Clearly, the ONE booth was the place to be. Or was it that trio of good looking guys? We’ll never know.

Thankfully, I spotted some folks I knew - anyone who was vaguely familiar and would recognize me. Folks from church, a few fellow home school moms (proving how hip and cool they were), former acquaintances, and even a guy from college that I haven’t seen in almost 20 years - they all signed up!

So the evening went. We were super excited to go into the concert and see Jars of Clay. Great band and the kids flipped out when they found out the band was coming out to the autograph table, they ran and managed a spot first in line. Giles took off his favorite baseball cap and each guy in the band autographed it for him. Lydia handed them a ONE brochure that they signed (and is now proudly hanging in her room). I, having my clipboard in hand, asked each guy whether they were ONE members. YES! They all said, many of them already wearing ONE bands! Such cool and gracious guys!

The highlight of the night was definitely getting the entire Switchfoot experience, complete with our cell phone glowing in the crowd and Lydia using it to call home and leave the music on our answering machine. Seeing my kids have so much fun almost was better than hearing Third Day again. Almost.

Grant, at age 6, was ga-ga. He is definitely a “friend of the foot.” And I certainly became a huge fan when they introduced their We Are ONE Tonight song. Jon Foreman introduced it as “a song about hope. That the human heart can change. The church can change. We are ONE!”

We ARE ONE! One of the best bits of advice came from Libby, a ONE staffer, who explained to us that we are redefining the way we volunteer. We take our passion, customize it to fit our time and our talents (even if it takes us out of our comfort zones occasionally) and DO it!

What a great night. I am so glad we got the opportunity to help ONE at the Music Builds concert! Well, clearly, Stan did as “Mr. I Got More Names Than You Did” (too which I rolled my eyes). But mostly, I hope our kids hearts were impacted, and as they grow up - their awareness will be greater on these issues and their desires will be to make a difference in the world.

Thanks ONE!

-Dawn Shelton, Oklahoma City

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under ONE Music Builds Tour, ONE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.