ONE Workshop: Rock Hill

Apr 12th, 2010 1:00 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

On Saturday, I got a chance to travel– along with my colleagues Morgana Wingard (her photos throughout this post) and Maryamu Aminu– down to Rock Hill, South Carolina to attend a ONE member workshop. As you know, we’ve been covering these workshops with some regularity on the ONE Blog. But it was quite another thing to actually be on the ground, and see for myself some of the great work being done in local communities.

As you might remember, ONE members in the Rock Hill-area recently held an incredibly successful meeting with House Budget Chairman Representative John Spratt which gave the South Carolinians a chance to bring their arguments for a strong International Affairs Budget directly the Rep. Spratt. He even recorded a video message.

So suffice it to say, the folks we met with on Saturday definitely knew their stuff. But these workshops are a great way to get everyone in one room in the spirit of collaboration. As a follow-up to their meeting with Rep. Spratt, we also took a few minutes to write personal letters to him (and Senator Lindsey Graham) reiterating our support for President Obama’s proposed International Affairs Budget.

After the workshop wrapped up, I got a chance to chat with some ONE members about how they got involved in the fight against extreme poverty, and how workshops like this give ONE members an opportunity to collaborate with one another.

Judith Myers (center in photo), a sophomore at Winthrop University in Rock Hill is a social work major and plans to join the Peace Corps after graduation. She was one of several at the workshop representing Winthrop’s Cooperative Student Fellowship, and said that the workshop helped inspire some ideas to take back to her music fraternity, which is always looking for ways to make a positive impact in their community. Judith also recently went barefoot for TOMS Shoes’ “One Day Without Shoes”. Braver woman than I!

Jacqueline Thurman, a paralegal, is the ONE Congressional District Leader for the Charlotte area (just north of Rock Hill), and made the short trip down. She first got involved with ONE as a grad student working on an HIV/AIDS-themed thesis, and after initially signing a petition, felt the need to “move up a step” and become more engaged in her community around these issues.

She called the workshop a “real eye-opener”, and a great opportunity to meet with others who were as passionate about fighting extreme poverty as she was.

Living and working in Washington, DC, it’s easy enough to get comfortable in a particular bubble. It was so encouraging and heartening to meet with ONE members who are really doing the hard work and making enormous differences by engaging their elected officials and advocating in their communities. Many thanks to the good people of Rock Hill for inviting us into their community, and to my colleague Lauren Conn, Regional Field Director for the Southern Atlantic Region, who really ran the show and did such an awesome job.

PS– We still have lots of workshops on the horizon, all over the country. Check out the list here and remember to RSVP.

TAGS: From ONE Members, ONE, South Carolina