Last week, several ONE members, led by ONE congressional district leader Leslie Scott, volunteered at Switchfoot’s concert in Kansas City. Despite the fact that it was homecoming weekend at my university and I had a literature review to work on, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to volunteer for ONE, so I drove two hours to the concert. It’s fitting that I got to be a ONE volunteer at a Switchfoot concert because it’s through them that I found out about the HIV/AIDS crisis and the advocacy organization DATA — which has since merged and become ONE.

At the concert, we talked with concertgoers individually and invited them to join ONE. To those who signed up, we gave ONE pins, stickers and ONE bands so they could represent ONE and our efforts to rally Americans in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. I personally encountered a few friends of mine and got them all to join, too. As I was about to invite one girl to join ONE, she beat me to the punch and told me how interested she was in getting involved locally with ONE. I was all too happy to hand her my clipboard to sign up. We ended up gaining dozens of new ONE members that night!

Switchfoot has been a long-time supporter of ONE, and they continued showing ONE some love that night during their show. Bassist Tim Foreman wore a ONE T-shirt, and frontman Jon Foreman thanked ONE from the stage toward the end of the concert.

Overall, it was a great night and I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to volunteer at the concert with ONE!

-William Payne, ONE member, Kansas

…And in Omaha

We had a great group of about nine ONE volunteers — some new to ONE, some old pros — who all did a super job! We talked to concertgoers and ended up recruiting more than 140 new members!

The concert was also great. Lead singer Jon Foreman gave a shout out to the ONE campaign from stage and thanked us for coming. Later, I was holding up a ONE shirt and he pointed and smiled.

It was a really great experience and I look forward to working with these volunteers and new members soon!

- Steve White, congressional district leader, Omaha

Yesterday, ONE volunteers in Kansas met with Grace Seaton, a staff member of Rep. Lynn Jenkins. They report back:

The meeting went quite well! I covered our bases using info and talking points, as well as sharing on a more personal level why I care about the ONE message and campaign. Volunteer Alden Hickman was a great individual to have in there, and brought a great balance to the meeting with his prior experience. Volunteer Jennifer Roland also explained to Grace why she cares about ONE, and fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease.

Grace seemed responsive, and recognized our passion for and knowledge of ONE’s issues. We made a specific request that Rep. Jenkins contact Representative Jerry Lewis, ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, and ask that he support a $51.7B allocation to the Foreign Operations bill to support development assistance.

Overall, it went beautifully.

-Justin Newhouse, Kansas ONE Volunteer

Janette Coil and I, members of the KC Metro ONE group, delivered hundreds of letters on behalf of constituents all across Kansas urging our Senators, Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, to sign onto a letter drafted by Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and John Sununu (R-NH). This drafted letter asks the Senate leadership to schedule a vote on PEPFAR reauthorization as soon as possible. Neither Senator was in their office when we stopped by to drop off the letters; however, I am hopeful that the shear number of letters will make it clear that Kansans want PEPFAR renewed promptly to continue life saving aid to the extreme poor in Africa.

-Jennifer Coil