On Thursday, Nov. 6, the ONE Chapter at The George Washington University partnered with two Greek organizations to put on Casino Royale, a four-hour poker marathon to benefit the Massachusetts-based non-profit Future Leaders of Ghana. With food in their stomachs and music in their ears, over forty GW students huddled around the large tables and competed in the first of two rounds of Texas Hold’em. At 10pm, the chips counted, the top ten players of the night advanced to the final round, their object the brand new Product (Red) iPod Shuffle reserved for the champion. Just after 11:30 that night, the victor emerged and ecstatically claimed her prize.

No one that night left empty-handed (or hungry — we had tons of food!); everyone received ONE memorabilia, generously donated by The ONE Campaign. Participants donated money at the beginning of the evening, and we raised over $200 for FLO Ghana. We also managed to spread the message to scores of potential new ONE members. This was our first major on-campus event of the year which we were entirely responsible for, and by all accounts, it was a fantastic success!

-Stephen Muse