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A Special Delivery
Last week Betsy Skipp, Laurie Campbell, Sara Paterni and I went to the Miami office of Rep. Ros-Lehtinen to hand deliver more than 100 constituent letters which were written at the recent Florida ONE Membership Conference.
Each letter asked Rep. Ros-Lehtinen to support $51.85 billion for the Foreign Operations budget, which funds critical life-saving and development programs like PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
While there we also thanked the office staff for Rep. Ros-Lehtinen’s recorded greeting, which was played at the Florida Membership Conference. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen’s message was inspiring and encouraged us all to continue our work on the ground to increase awareness about global poverty.
-Alix Gordon, ONE Miami
Plans this Saturday?
This Saturday, the first ever ONE Membership Conference will be held in Miami, Florida. The ONE conference will feature presentations from ONE staff, Gabe Lazier from The Alliance To End Hunger, and highlight Florida ONE Member activity and congressional engagement. We are also very excited that ONE’s CEO David Lane will be on hand to deliver opening remarks.
The conference aims to further educate and develop ONE’s grassroots support and expand congressional support for international life saving efforts. This will be a very exciting event, and we here at ONE view this as a direct investment in our most valuable resources…our ONE membership!
There will be plenty of information, prizes, and free ONE gear for those that recruit and bring new ONE members to the ONE conference. So please join us this Saturday from 1:00pm to 6:00pm in Miami, and please register here now to save a place.
Stay tuned to the ONE Blog for updates from the Florida ONE Membership Conference and local Florida ONE members.
And if you cannot join us, we hope you can join us at the next ONE Membership Conference. Location and details to be named soon!
-Matthew Bartlett
ONE Conference in Florida
I have great news for Florida ONE members. We have just finalized the details on our first ever official ONE Membership Conference in Florida, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Miami on Saturday, May 30th from 1:00—6:00 p.m.
The conference will feature workshops, experts from ONE and other poverty-fighting groups and lots of opportunities to meet other ONE members and learn how to be an even more effective advocate for the world’s most vulnerable people. There will also be prizes and ONE gear for everyone that attends this free event.
Space is limited, so please RSVP now to save your spot and get all the details.
Event details:
What: ONE Membership Conference
Where: Hyatt Regency Hotel, 400 SE 2nd Street, Miami, FL 33131
When: Saturday May 30, 2009
The ONE Conference will be an exciting opportunity to learn more about issues related to extreme poverty and global disease, and how your voice can help save millions of lives around the world. This is our chance to take an up-close look at policy, government, community organizing and many more elements of anti-poverty advocacy. Most importantly, we’ll get a chance to hear from you!
I’m also pleased to announce that Gabriel Lazier from The Alliance to End Hunger will be joining us as a special guest speaker.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing you at the ONE Conference.
http://www.one.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=956
See you soon,
-Sara Paterni, FL ONE Field Organizer
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s Miami Office Opening
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a grand opening celebration at her new district office in Miami, Florida last Wednesday. I met up with fellow ONE member, Alix Gordon for the big event.
The office opening drew people many from the community, including representatives from ONE’s partners: Bread for the World, CARE and RESULTS. Shortly after arriving we were ushered over to greet the Congresswoman and take an official photo. She took one look at our ONE shirts and in front of a very crowded room gave us a warm welcome and thanked us for coming out to the event.
We are very thankful for the invitation to attend the event and look forward to continuing our relationship with Rep. Ros-Lehtinen and her staff.
-Sara Paterni, FL ONE Field Organizer
Fighting Poverty in Miami
Over the weekend, ONE volunteers participated in the Miami Poverty Conference, which took place at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The conference is a brand new initiative started by University of Miami students to educate members of the community and students from universities and colleges in the Miami-Dade area about the growing problem of poverty in their community and throughout the World.
Miami ONE Member, Alix Gordon and I led an interactive workshop to teach the students about ONE and our work in Florida to increase awareness about extreme poverty and preventable diseases, especially in Africa and Latin America. We talked about the different ways they can help achieve change through advocacy and encouraged each person to reach out to their elected leaders to ensure that America does not forget the World’s most vulnerable people.
After the conference, the University held a benefit concert, featuring poets, live bands and other artists who helped draw attention to the plight of those living in poverty. We set up a ONE information table at the concert and were able to talk to many more students about ONE and upcoming volunteer opportunities in the community.
Overall, the Miami Poverty Conference not only provided a forum to educate students about the growing problem of poverty, but also inspired students to actively engage in the community on these issues.
-Sara J. Paterni, FL Field Organizer
World AIDS Day: Miami
The City of Miami recognized the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day yesterday with a candlelight memorial and tree lighting ceremony at the Miami Riverside Center. ONE volunteers participated in the event to help raise awareness, educate and motivate people to continue to fight the disease.
The event began with an invocation by Reverend Raymond Carvil, Sr. and featured several speakers including Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Ed Resto from the Jackson Health System and Lillian Rivera, Miami Dade County Health Department Administrator.
After the tree lighting and candlelight vigil we had an opportunity to speak with Mayor Diaz and his staff. We talked about the goals of the ONE Campaign and thanked them for their commitment to raising awareness locally about HIV/AIDS and the devastating impacts of the disease.
We also talked to Commissioner Joe Sanchez about ONE’s presence in Florida, some of our recent activities in the area and our efforts to engage local leaders to help us raise awareness about extreme poverty and preventable diseases like HIV/AIDS. We gave him a ONE shirt and look forward to future meetings with his office.
By the end of the night we had passed out all of our wrist bands and made many new friends who share our commitment to fighting AIDS. With a collective voice, we believe that we can motivate our leaders to do more in the fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS.
-Sara Paterni
Florida Shoutouts
In the months leading up to the election the south Florida ONE volunteers were very active in the community, reaching out to local universities and colleges as well as various political, religious and business leaders throughout the state to help keep the issues of extreme poverty a top priority during the election season.
I want to especially thank Paula Diaz, Alix Gordon, and Danielle DePas for their commitment to raising awareness about global health and poverty issues and for energizing others around them to get involved in our advocacy efforts. Paula, Alix and Danielle volunteered on countless nights and weekends and are the driving force behind Miami’s ONE Campaign.
ONE’s strong volunteer base in Florida enabled us to make a significant impact on the community, especially in these last three months leading up to the election. Thank you to each person that volunteered and partner organization that worked alongside us as we worked together to advocate for increased efforts to provide for basic needs like health, education, clean water and nutrition for the world’s poorest people.
-Sara Paterni
As Election Day Nears, ONE Gets Fired Up
South Florida ONE volunteers were hot on the campaign trail yesterday, representing ONE at back-to-back rallies for Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama.
In the morning we went to the Everglades Lumberyard in Miami to hear Senator McCain speak. He was accompanied by fellow Republicans Governor Charlie Crist, Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Florida’s former Governor and current ONE Vote ’08 Co-Chair, Jeb Bush.
Just a few hours later Senators Obama and Biden held a campaign rally at the Bank Atlantic Center in Fort Lauderdale. Just when we thought we were not going to be able to get in, the security guards let us through and we found great seats just behind the stage.
With the election right around the corner, ONE volunteers are working harder than ever to maintain their strong presence on the campaign trail in Florida and to show the candidates that regardless of party affiliation, fighting global disease and extreme poverty must be a priority in the next administration.
-Sara Paterni
Swinging By Ros-Lehtinen’s Office
On Sunday Miami ONE Members in Miami, met with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to thank her for her leadership in the passage of PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS RElief) and for her continued support of policies to fight global disease and extreme poverty around the world.
The congresswoman expressed tremendous appreciation for our efforts on the ground and commended ONE and our partner organizations for working together to engage the community and raise awareness about extreme poverty. She was especially happy to hear (more…)
ONE Miami Goes Ultra
On Friday, March 29th and Saturday March 30th, volunteers from ONE Miami tabled at “Ultra Music Festival,” a 2-day concert composed of more than 100 DJs from around the world and an estimated 70,000 attendees. Our 10×10 ft. plot of land drew a good amount of attention. We adorned our table with a white sheet, a banner, flyers, business cards, and of course, the declaration.
We also set up a white sheet to serve as a film screen, a LCD projector and a computer to show ONE commercials and ONE Miami created videos. I like to believe we had the best looking booth at the festival, but I may be a bit biased. Many people came to look at the visuals, but they stayed to discuss the issues of extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS. A phenomenon of this tabling event that I have not seen before was that not one person walked away without having signed the declaration.
Once the crowd around our table died down, we took our agenda to the crowd. We weaved around the multiple stages in our ONE t-shirts, armed with flyers, wristbands, and the declaration. We spoke to concert goers and vendors, security and entertainment. Many people were very receptive and even had stories of their own to share.
Tabling for ONE provides a unique opportunity to meet many different people and share perspectives on very serious issues. Oftentimes you spark in people a latent desire to make this world better that is particularly inspiring. When this happens, and it is quite often, you find the real pleasure of tabling for ONE.
[Lots more photos from Ultra Miami on Flickr here.]
-Danielle De Pas, ONEMiami Volunteer
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
The ONE Blog updates readers daily with the latest in global development news and analysis and what ONE members and our partners are doing around the world to influence world leaders in the fight against global poverty.
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TAGS: Florida, Miami, ONE Members, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen