Greetings from Pennsylvania! The new year is here and already Pennsylvania ONE members are off and running helping to raise awareness and participate in advocacy related events for ONE! Many PA ONE members have been busy the last couple of days making calls to Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey urging him, as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, to ask Senator Hillary Clinton questions related to global poverty and disease at her confirmation hearing as Secretary of State. I have been informed by a member of Senator Casey’s staff that he would do his very best to urge the Senator to ask these questions and at the very least submit the Questions for the Record. There is still time to contact Senator Casey’s office at 202-224-6324 so please do so and please remember to log your calls at www.one.org!

Philadelphia ONE members are planning some events around Martin Luther King Day including their Annual MLK Day of Service at a recreation center on January 19th and their Annual MLK Symposium on January 24th, 2009. ONE tables will be set up and ONE member Deesha Dyer will be conducting a workshop promoting advocacy with elected officials. Please visit www.geoclan.com/mlk to register for the Symposium. The group also has plans to paint a mural in support of ONE and the Millennium Development Goals in the Spring. More to come in the near future about these exciting events on the blog!

One other highlight to mention! On February 15th, 2009 Lebanon Valley College will be hosting a ONE Sabbath Forum on campus at Miller Chapel starting at 2:00pm. The panel will consist of different faith leaders who will be asked to answer questions related to global poverty and disease and how their faith communities are responding to the emergency facing many in the developing world. The panel will be moderated by the Rev. Sandra L. Strauss, Director of Public Advocacy for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and will be captured on DVD for others to utilize as an advocacy tool. This is only the beginning of 2009 and PA ONE members have already been hitting the phones and submitting Letters to the Editor asking President Elect Obama to make extreme poverty a priority in his new administration. We’re off to a great start here in PA ….LET’S KEEP IT UP!

-Brian Sweeney, ONE Volunteer