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…)

Free Cone (Yester)day

With an official new ONE ice flavor at Ben & Jerry’s, free cone day was a pretty big deal around here. Across the country, ONE staff and volunteers used the event to spread the word about the fight to end extreme poverty, sign up tons of new member - and okay- eat free ice cream.

Below, some great photos and a note from Matt Haber who organized a crew of volunteers down in South Florida.

Student leaders from the ONE chapter at Pines Charter School recruited volunteers and collected signatures for five hours after school at Ben Jerry’s for Free Cone Day. It was a great evening of fun, facts, and free ice cream as these hardworking kids spoke with entire families, young professionals, and even sailors in town for fleet week about extreme poverty across the world. There was a strong presence and a lot of interest in ONE by ice cream lovers.

This is a passionate bunch of young people who, along with their teacher Ms. De Pas, have built a high school ONE chapter with 150 members. You can check out more about these great kids on their chapter’s MySpace page.

-Matt Haber

Tracking the Candidates in PA and FL

ONE Vote ‘08 has sent field staff to key swing states to raise the issue of global poverty at the candidates’ events leading up to the election. Below posts from Tyler in Pennsylvania and Jedidiah in Florida.

Well, I just landed here in Pennsylvania and I’ve already hit the ground running. On April 4, a panel of Senator Obama’s senior foreign policy advisors met at the University of Pennsylvania to discuss Senator Obama’s positions on foreign affairs. While many of the questions focused on the War in Iraq, relations with China, Russia, and Pakistan, and the tension between international law and national security, one question did address issues of concern to ONE.

Dr. Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, responded to a question on economic development and combating major disease in Africa, especially in light of Senator Obama’s personal connections to the continent. She said America and the world had been “ill-served by relegating Africa to the back burner” because it is in our strategic and security interests to be involved on the continent. She said Senator Obama would pursue a more “holistic” approach, addressing “trans-national” security challenges, from terrorism and proliferation to disease and environmental degradation. She claims that one of Senator Obama¹s unique foreign policy insights was the recognition that “our national security depends on the security of people in every corner of the globe.” She said as president, Senator Obama would double foreign aid and would work to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure in developing countries.

-Tyler Bond, ONE Vote ‘08 field organizer, Pennsylvania

Friday was my first day and I had the job of going to a McCain roundtable event in Pensacola, Florida, and making sure the poorest in the world weren’t forgotten at the event.

At the event I was able to reach out to Republican leaders in the panhandle for the ONE Campaign and the global fight against extreme poverty. Clay Williams the Republican Field Staff for the Panhandle and Clay Ingram the Chairman of the Escambia County Republican Executive Committee received our platform well. I am excited to work with them in the future.

-Jedidiah Hall, ONE Vote ‘08 field organizer, Florida

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

OV08 Keeps Truck’n!

As Super Tuesday has now passed, ONE Vote ‘08 will still be on the campaign trail to make sure that the next president of the United States knows that more than 2 million ONE members - Republicans and Democrats - want our country to end deaths from malaria, reverse the deadly HIV/AIDS emergency crisis, fight hunger and make extreme, stupid poverty…history.

There have been so many, many, great ONE moments where ONE members have taken to the trail to use their voice for the poorest people in the world…and we are not done yet.

Check out a few more photos from FL where ONE Vote ‘08 sprang into action and hit the trail in the days leading up to the primary.

-Matthew Bartlett

Banding Florida’s Governor

ONE members spent a warm Florida evening drumming up awareness and visibility outside the MSNBC GOP debate in Boca Raton, FL. We took advantage of the live MSNBC broadcast before the debate to hold up our ONE signs in the backdrop while Chris Matthews was on the air. Not to let our work stop with the national TV exposure, we soon spotted Joe Scarbourough of MSNBC who took the time to have his picture taken with us. We ran into Joe later at a debate watch party and were able to chat a bit more.

After our successful MSNBC encounters, we stepped it up a notch and decided to band “The People’s Governor” himself, Charlie Crist. Our youngest member, 18-year old David, was up to the challenge and positioned himself perfectly next to Governor Crist as he came off stage. As soon as Crist finished taking questions from the media, David seized the opportunity to give Crist the white band on behalf of the ONE Campaign. Way to go David!! Even the ONE staffers were impressed. It was a great night in the Sunshine State.

-Ali Escalante, Florida ONE member

Go Steve!

John McCain takes the time to talk about ONE at a rally again, this time while on a campaign stop at the Villages in Lady Lake, FL, yesterday.

In this C-Span clip, the senator passes the mic to our own (unshaven) Steve Wilson! Check out out the clip and some excerpts I transcribed below.

.

Senator McCain: “Could I mention to you in passing, one of the things I want to do is inspire Americans to serve causes greater than their self interests. Now there are some young people over there, if you raise your hands, from ONE. I see you, raise you hands. See these young people there?

There’s an organization called “ONE,”…there are 2 million volunteers in this country of young people who are trying to cure some of the problems that face this nation including, and the world, in under-developed countries, malaria, HIV/AIDS. They volunteer their services, they go to Africa and they try to help, and sir I’ll give you 30 seconds to describe to the people, if you bring the microphone over there, as to what these over 2 million young Americans are doing to serve humanity, mankind and the United States of America. Please go ahead sir.”

[Steve talks here!]

Senator McCain: “Thank you. My friends I’d just like to say again, the greatness of America, the greatness of America I think is epitomized by the people in your organization and they’re not just young people, they’re people from all over our society. My friends, I want to serve America, but I believe that one of the greatest things that I want to accomplish is for people to serve a cause greater than their self-interest. And could I say that I think that you and others epitomize that. I believe it’s the noblest cause you can have.”

-Virginia Simmons

Following the Candidates to the Sunshine State

On the campaign trail here in Florida we caught up with Governors Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. We saw Mitt in downtown Orlando on a stop along the trail. After his speech we approached the governor and commended him for talking about his plans to combat global poverty.

After the meeting with Governor Romney we caught word that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was having an impromptu press conference at the airport. ONE members were able to chat with the governor and thanked him for his support. Gov. Huckabee was nice enough to take a photo with us before jumping in an SUV and heading off to his next stop. Ready, set, all GOP eyes on Florida!

-Wes Peterson

Boca-Motion

Last Sunday, our local “ONEBoca” Volunteer Group and the First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton, FL, hosted “An Opportunity and An Adventure,” an event to highlight the ONE Campaign.

To help raise awareness, we invited members of our FUMC congregation, along with numerous other area faith (10 churches) and social interest groups. Including our almost 30 volunteers, over 140 people attended!

During the event, we enjoyed live music by Roger Petersen (with members of our Praise Team band,) a live dance performance by “The Garment of Praise Dance Ministry,” and a the organization “Taste of Africa” gave out Kenyan coffee and African cakes, cookies and sugar-roasted peanuts!

During the event, we provided exibits space for NothingButNets (www.nothingbutnets.net ), the SaveDarfur Coalition of South Palm Beach County and BeadforLife (www.beadforlife.org ).

It was the first time our group hosted an event like this and it was a great learning experience. “ONEBoca” is a fairly small group thus far, but we hope to grow through good word-of-mouth and be off to a great start in 2008!

-Nancy Parker, Shari MacFarlane, Emily Cann, Roxanne Scarlata and Rose Sunbury, The ONEBoca Volunteer Group

(more…)