Meet Matt and Nicole

Mar 17th, 2010 9:57 AM UTC
By Brian Sweeney

Pennsylvania ONE Members Matt Schaeffer and Nicole Miller share their experiences with ONE and why they feel the desire to raise awareness in their local community!

From Matt:

One of my personal favorite highlights in helping raise awareness for ONE came during ONE Vote ’08. I had the opportunity to address Senator McCain at a town hall event. It was quite a thrill to speak in front of several hundred people in the audience about the importance of ONE!

The most important part of being active with ONE throughout my college career was learning how to convince people to raise awareness about global poverty and disease. Organizing ONE events at Lebanon Valley College taught me many things about conveying an important message in a compelling way. I think we were very successful with the number of people who were impacted at the events and became ONE members. ONE also teaches younger members like myself to be aware of important political issues and the international implications of our lifestyle at home.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet Congressman Tim Holden D-PA and some of the staff from both Senator Casey and Specter. Meeting with your elected officials is very important and gives ONE Members the ability to convey a sense of urgency concerning the dire need of the world’s poorest inhabitants. Leaving those meetings filled me with a sense of pride and responsibility that is hard to come by at a young age. I truly believe that when people become educated and made aware of what is happening every day in the developing world they say “stop it right there…how can we help?” I now live in the Philadelphia area and cannot wait to promote advocacy for ONE in my new surroundings!

…………

From Nicole:

With ONE I’ve been able to have direct contact with my Senator’s staffs to advocate for an end to global poverty and to thank them for their support so far. In November 2009 I had the opportunity to put a ONE wristband on Senator Arlen Specter during a town hall meeting. The Senator wore the ONE band and we talked about the importance of his co-sponsorship for the Water for the World Act.

In January, I was lucky enough to attend the ONE Campus Challenge’s Power 100 Summit and join fantastic ONE members from all over the country for meetings on Capitol Hill. Our meetings with both Senator Casey and Senator Specter’s offices showed me just how important each of our ONE voices can be. I am very excited about organizing a chapter of ONE Members that will advocate on behalf of the world’s poorest people. In fact, our chapter’s advocacy has already begun by making our voices heard to our respective members of Congress in support of the President’s request for the International Affairs Budget!

TAGS: From ONE Members, Pennsylvania