Last week, I, along with nine fellow Colorado Springs ONE members met with Annie Oatman-Gardner, staff member for Senator Michael Bennet, to discuss the efforts of Coloradans in the fight against extreme global poverty and preventable disease.

Ms. Gardner wanted to know about ONE’s presence in Colorado. We told her we’re over 30,000 strong in the state and have organized regionally in the major cities and college campuses. We also had a large presence at the Democratic National Convention last year. Like the 10 of us, ONE members come from all walks of life and are committed to non-partisanship.

During our meeting, we asked Sen. Bennet to lend his voice in the US Senate for the world’s poorest people by supporting proven, effective programs like the Global Fund, which directs resources to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria to the neediest people in the world. We requested that he support the highest possible level of funding for the Global Fund as the House and Senate conference this fall.

We also asked that Sen. Bennet remember the world’s poorest as the Senate begins work on its climate change bill, by supporting a 5% allocation of any climate related revenue to go directly towards helping them adapt to the consequences of current and future climate change (i.e. frequent drought and floods, water scarcity and increased health challenges). After all, the world’s poorest are most adversely affected by changes in climate.

We thanked Annie for meeting with us, and expressed to her that we hope to work with Sen. Bennet in the future to ensure that the US implement smart, proven and effective programs to help raise the world’s poorest out of extreme poverty, creating a better, safer world for us all.

-Megan Marsh, ONE Member

Photo (L-R): Ida Zanmiller, Christie Garrison, Megan Marsh, Erin Swanson, Mark Hopewell, Annie Oatman-Gardner, Andrea Staebell, Kelly Hedgecock, Regina Hopewell, Lenore Swaim, Dave Swaim

The Music Builds Tour ended in Denver CO on Sunday night, and it ended with a bang. We had 14 volunteers attend and we were able to sign up more than 450 new members of ONE.

Big thanks to Switchfoot, Robert Randolph, Third Day, and Jars of Clay for their support and kind words from the stage. Many of their fans found us after or during the show to sign the declaration and learn more because of the endorsement from their favorite band.

Throughout the tour we have had the opportunity to meet literally thousands of new faces, all of whom were shocked to hear about how diseases like malaria and tuberculosis are killing millions in Africa. Now they are eager to hold our elected leaders accountable for the promises America has made to help eradicate these diseases everywhere.

-Matthew Higginson

I wanted to pass along this great article about ONE member Matthew McAllister published in the University of Colorado’s Campus Press. Matthew has been an active member of the ONE Campaign since high school and participated in last year’s ONE Campus Challenge (OCC), and we’re looking forward to him being a leader in this year’s OCC too. Matthew has also contributed to our ONE blog in the past, which you can check out here and here.

An excerpt from the piece below, full piece here

[The ONE Campaign] has since become McAllister’s passion and for the past three years he has been making changes across the nation to bring awareness to this campaign and its goals. McAllister has been a part of getting local leaders such as Gov. Bill Ritter involved with the campaign, successfully recruiting the Denver City Council to support the ONE campaign and passing a proclamation that declares CU a campus of ONE. The ONE CU student group is currently planning a signing ceremony for that proclamation to bring press attention to CU’s humanitarian values.

The ONE campus group was started by Erin Macdonald, a 21-year-old senior studying physics and mathematics. Macdonald had worked with the ONE campaign since it was created in 2005. She began the campus group in the fall of 2007, handing leadership over to McAllister in the spring of that same year.

“I think he’s one of those people that really cares about the cause,” Macdonald said. “He works hard to put together events and put the word out because he really believes in it. He’s a great leader.

All of this and McAllister hasn’t even celebrated his 20th birthday yet.

Matt Higgginson was in charge of local ONE volunteers for the DNCC all week and did an amazing job if I do say so myself. I thought posting some of the pics from his camera might give you a sense of what he was up to all week.

Local volunteers Brooke and Dana working the ONE Bus.

Darren & Lindsey from Littleton, CO, working the service project.

ONE volunteer Joe Marsh is signing Delegates up as they wait for their credentials.

And one of many volunteers who walked the 16th St. Mall in Denver and signed up new members to ONE.

A lot of people have come by to learn about ONE and sign up for the cause. Here’s a sampling of the foot traffic.

Below, a couple of alternate delegates from New Mexico came by. They said they’d be on the convention floor tomorrow and will be wearing their new ONE shirts.

Here, a set of 3 delegates from Nevada came by to pick up some ONE materials.

A couple more pics of visitors coming by.

And this one is my favorite. ONE staff and volunteers were busy, so our new Alternate-Delegate-from-New Mexico friends introduced these three newbies to ONE.

The delegates, volunteers and brand new ONE members are pouring by our ONE Bus in Denver.

I managed to catch some of it on camera. First I’ll profile 3 of our volunteers: Erika, Monica and Allie.

Erika (below) and I chatted for a bit. She told me that she first heard about ONE 2 years ago from an email – and has been a big supporter ever since. This is the first time she’s been able to volunteer in-person – I’m excited to see more of her around the convention.

Monica is also a local volunteer. Here she is getting ready to head out to the 16th St. Mall in Denver to spread the word about ONE. Yesterday, she walked the “delegate-credentialing” line and signed up new ONE delegates for us. She was even able to get to hand some ONE lit and a ONE band to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

And local volunteer Allie also came by and was kind enough to pose for me by our bus.

-Virginia Simmons

I’m here with a ONE crew in Denver, starting up the 1st leg of ONE’s convention outreach.

Below check out our new traveling headquarters: “the ONE Bus”. This week it’s in Denver for the Democratic National Committee Convention. Next week we’ll drive the bus to Minneapolis/ St. Paul for the Republican National Committee Convention.

Right now, folks are just setting up, and at 9am (mountain time) Democratic delegates and volunteers will be coming by to learn more about ONE and how to get involved.

Later today, we’re partnering with World Vision to run a service project building volunteer kits for AIDS caregivers around the world.

Check back to the ONE Blog over the next 2 week for more updates from the ground.

-Virginia Simmons

Here at ONE we are so excited about the Democratic and Republican National Conventions coming up in the next few weeks! The conventions are a perfect opportunity to interact with party delegates and officials from all over the country and ONE will be there to make sure to bring the issues of extreme poverty into the US political arena. We will have many events at both conventions, including a wrapped campaign-style bus with a state-of-the-art podcast station.

ONE is also hosting service projects for volunteers at both conventions. As many as 800 volunteers will assemble kits to distribute to caregivers who support people living with AIDS all over the world. In addition, ONE will be hosting panel discussions as each convention to engage and educate people on the issues of extreme poverty and global disease.

For those who live in Denver or Minneapolis, or plan to travel there for the conventions, you can sign up now to help with the caregiver kits at the DNC here and the RNC here. More information about the conventions will follow in the coming days.

Here in Colorado, everyone is talking about the Democratic National Convention. ONE members from around the state are thinking up ways to make the biggest impact on the delegates and candidates who will start flooding Denver later this month. During Friday night’s ONE Vote ‘08 Gallery Show we talked about ONE’s plans during DNC week, including assembling care packages for Africa, and attending a forum on international development and global poverty.

On the walls of the gallery were pictures of ONE members in Africa and ONE Vote ‘08 volunteers meeting with the presidential candidates on the campaign trail. The pictures captured the type of energy we want to produce at the convention. We also saw the latest ONE Vote ‘08 video, which showed the enormous success of the campaign so far.

The event was aimed at our most loyal members and getting them energized about future events – and it worked. There was a buzz around the room that lingered through the night as people kept having thoughts spring to their mind about who would be good to talk to about getting an article written about the care packages, or where we could set up a booth.

Doug Smith, one of the DenverONE moderators made the goal for our group very clear though: 400 volunteers at the care package event on the 25th. So if you live in Colorado we’re going to need you, and 3 of your friends, to help us out that day. Get involved in what we’re doing by joining the DenverONE page.

We had an awesome event last week, I know that energy will carry us to the DNC where I hope to see dozens of my fellow ONE members on every block.

-Matthew McAllister, DenverONE

On Wednesday I dropped off 900 pages worth of letters to Senator Wayne Allard’s office asking the senator to become a cosponsor. The letters made quite the impression on the staff there. After dropping them off we talked at length about the type of work ONE does and the development issues we are working on.

Back in 2002 only 50,000 people were receiving ARV’s from our programs. Today, because of PEPFAR, over 2 million people are getting the life saving drugs they need. A big thanks to all the Coloradoans who stepped up and added their name to the letter as well as additional comments, it made a big impact and hopefully it will help move PEPFAR forward.

-Matthew McAllister