ONE Fresno Celebrates Civic Responsibility

Jun 2nd, 2009 1:23 PM UTC
By Field

This weekend ONE Fresno/Clovis members had a blast educating patrons attending the Harmonic Diversity on F Street event in Downtown Fresno. Harmonic Diversity, a local non-profit, holds a community celebration at the Poverello House every year that focuses on civic responsibility, creative arts, and providing services to the homeless and the hungry. Six ONE Fresno members tabled the event and in a short period of time had several people sign the declaration and at least thirteen new more members expressing interest in participating in upcoming ONE events.

Since we were also there to celebrate the arts, my band was invited to play – and of course we used every opportunity to direct traffic to our ONE table! It was exciting to see newer member’s nervousness fall by the wayside once they started talking about what truly was at stake: helping the world’s poorest people overcome preventable diseases and extreme poverty. And even though not everyone we spoke with signed the declaration, we answer many questions, informed people about the issues, and started a lot of conversations throughout the event.

I am excited and encouraged to see that people continue to take hold of ONE’s vision. People in California’s geographical center are realizing that we can make a difference and that eliminating crushing poverty is not a utopian pipe dream but a concrete, realistic and attainable goal. We are currently planning our next steps: meeting with our representatives and adding to the number of monthly ONE events we plan.

-Ryan Townsend, Fresno, CA

TAGS: California, From ONE Members