Hooting and Hollering

After Alicia Keys performed “Superwoman” MTV’s Shay walked around the audience to talk to folks.

One of the two students he stops talked about the ONE Campus Challenge. For the challenge, she explains, students receive points for raising awareness for ONE and the fight against global poverty. She gives examples of ways to gain points in the challenge, like writing Letters to the Editor of your local paper or having your dean declare your campus a “Campus of ONE.”

Then there was lots of hooting and hollering;)

Bill

(paraphrased)

Bil Clinton: ‘We want to make a movement feel to this. Private people doing public work. You can work on a political campaign. You can get involved in a cause…

We live in a short attention span society. If you want people to do something, they have to know how to do it immediately…

Young people from the ages from 16-30 are more involved in the kind of work we’re talking about here tonight than at any time in history. We’re riding the tide…

I’ve got a lot of confidence in the younger generation. What the technology and the Internet and avenues like MTV give us is more and more ways to make an impact…

Find something you can give. Maybe it’s not food or money. Maybe it’s clothes you can donate. Find out what you can do.’

Bill’s goal: to get 100% of the young people to see this as a part of citizenship.

How Do We Find the Time?

Nick from New Jersey University asks: “As college students, we’re incredibly busy. How do we find time to support causes like ONE.org.

Chris says: “I bet if you had AIDS, you’d find time to work on it.”

Bill Clinton, on a more serious note, says (paraphrased) “You start from where you are. Volunteer an hour, two hours a month. Just start. Don’t get hung up that what you can give isn’t enough. You have to start from where you are.”

President Bill Clinton

Clinton is thanking MTV for working with him on this project.

He says today young people have more power to make change than at any other time in human history - highlighting the impact of, among other things, the Internet.

He says if young people want to see the 21st century that they want to live in, we must do 3 things.

1. Make a contribution to society by doing honorable work
2. Be intelligent and active voters and participants in our democracy
3. Be civil servants

This is why they’re expanding the Clinton Global Initiative to young people: to “CGI U”

It’s started!

Jerry Lee Lewis and country music icon Solomon Burke are opening up the show.

(Some people are standing and may or may not be blocking my view now. I’m not naming any names but one of them sends ONE members a lot of email….)

(ps- Trevor gives a shout out)

Seriously…

…Watch it live on our stream.

Your view will probably be better than mine;)

Live From New York!

Tonight, I have the pleasure of live blogging live from the Apollo theater where the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), MTV and ONE are hosting “Giving” - a roundtable discussion on youth activism.

At the event - we’ll officially launch the ONE Campus Challenge - although we did go out of our way to leak it to our members and blog readers beforehand:)

The event’s set to start at 9 but a bunch of us ONE loyalist have been here for hours making sure to get the word about ONE out to the more than 1,000 young people attending.

In a moment I’ll post a few great shots of the crew and crowd. Even as I sit here, I see more and more people in ONE shirts walking by.