Check out this great update from some ONE members in Tennessee. A huge thanks to Claire Lovelace, Patte Earley and Jim Rugh for doing a great job representing ONE!

-Chris Berg

On Thursday, April 9, a couple ONE members and I from Tennessee’s First District met with our Congressman, Representative Phil Roe. He and his staff were very cordial.

We asked the Congressman to support a robust increase in the International Affairs Budget and specifically requested that he ask the Ranking Republican on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Rep. Kay Granger, to work for full funding for the 302B allocation for the Foreign Affairs Budget. Congressman Roe committed to doing that.

From our conversation, we gathered that Congressman Roe had been greatly impressed by the African heads of state that spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and thanked President Bush for the PEPFAR funds that helped their countries so much. When he mentioned the Prayer Breakfast, we presented him with a copy of the book, On the Move, which contains Bono’s speech from the 2006 Prayer Breakfast. Coincidentally, my friend Patte and I attend the same church as Congressman Roe and our pastor used information from On the Move in a Lenten sermon to inspire us to action on issues related to poverty.

At the end of our meeting, we thanked the Congressman for his time and posed for a picture with him underneath the seal of his office.

-Claire Lovelace, ONE Member

On Tuesday, May 5, Save the Children and Doctor and Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist visited our school to launch the 2008 State of the Worlds’ Mothers Report. Who would think that learning to knit would bring so much excitement? Not the first second and third graders in Cordova, TN at Lamplighter Montessori School who knitted infant caps for Save the Children’s Caps to the Capital campaign!

Our students knitted the caps and sent them to Save the Children. Then they were invited to D.C to lobby with Save the Children. This week our school was chosen as The United States launch site for the 2008 report. Bright and early on Tuesday morning our students went on TV to promote awareness of the report. Later in the day, Senator Frist visited the school to talk about the simple and inexpensive ways children’s lives can be saved; warm caps for infants, hand washing, clean water and immunizations. The students showed Senator Frist the caps they had knitted in anticipation of another “Caps to the Capital” campaign.

Our Middle School students presented Save the Children, Senator Frist, Shelby County Mayor A. C. Wharton and ONE with student paintings to show our appreciation for the work being done to help children all over the world reach their first birthday.

-Terrie Sampson, Head of School, Lamplighter Montessori School

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