Saturday was an awesome day to fight extreme poverty in Louisville, KY! The multi-platinum selling rock band Third Day found out that the day of their Louisville concert fell during the weekend of the international Stand Up Against Poverty and they not only wanted to take part during their concert but also had the idea of doing a special question and answer session with anyone who agreed to become ONE members!

Thirteen great ONE volunteers got to Freedom Hall to start working to recruit new members at 6:00PM and by the time Third Day took the stage around 9:00 we had signed up 538 people who wanted to join us in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases. The volunteers did such an awesome job we were worried we would not be able to fit everyone into the Q&A after the concert!

During the concert Third Day slowed things down and told the audience that they were going to do something kind of unusual for a rock concert- that they wanted everyone to sit down! At that point the lead singer Mac and the bassist Tai spoke about ONE and the importance of everyone coming together to make a difference in the fight against extreme poverty. They then turned it over to WJIE Radio station DJ Chris Crain to read the Stand Up pledge asking people to commit themselves to fighting poverty every day. It was so exciting to be part of over 6000 people all at one time standing up and cheering in coordination with millions of people all over the planet doing the same thing.

After the show was the special Q&A session for ONE members, and over 400 people poured into the room anxiously waiting to hear more from their favorite band. I kicked things off by talking about ONE and ways people in Louisville can use their voices for the world’s poorest people. Then all the members of Third Day entered the room as their fans went wild! Starting off the Q&A both Mac and Tai spoke very passionately about the importance of fighting for the poorest of the poor and how ONE makes it very easy to get started in that fight. People had tons of questions and were so excited for the opportunity to learn more about ONE and get to see such a personal side of Third Day.

Overall it was an amazing day to Stand Up Against Poverty and I was so fortunate to be part of it all!

PS: Stay tuned to the ONE Blog for some video and pictures from the Q&A with Third Day soon!