As many ONE members will recall, Sen. Leahy has been a true champion for ONE and the world’s poorest people for years now. Sen. Leahy has been a staunch supporter for the very small, but very important part of the budget that houses all of the US’s international life-saving programs that ONE advocates for and supports.

He was also instrumental in the recent Transparency Amendment that will help fight corruption in resource rich, but highly impoverished countries in Africa. So we were very excited to meet Sen. Leahy in person and thank him for all he has done for ONE, and the world’s poorest people!

We huddled up in a small coffee shop and waited as Sen. Leahy finished a radio interview. As soon as he hit the street, he saw us in our ONE shirts, and shouted, “ONE!” instantly recognizing our movement. We quickly introduced ourselves and shook his hand — thanking him for helping to lead our nation’s heroic efforts to save millions of lives in the poorest nations on earth. Sen. Leahy was great, and thanked us back for our efforts as ONE members.

I told Sen. Leahy that we would need his continued leadership after the elections to make sure that we maintain the highest, most efficient levels of funding for the Global Fund, GAVI and agricultural efforts in Africa during the possible CR process.

And since Sen. Leahy has often been called, “John Wayne” because of his leadership in the US Senate around our issues, I said “John Wayne of the Senate! Big thanks!” And Sen. Leahy had a good laugh, and told us some stories about his efforts in the past with ONE, even elaborating on his nickname. We thanked him, and stressed to him that the world’s poorest people need John Wayne’s leadership once again during the CR process.

It isn’t everyday that you get to meet a US senator, much less John Wayne — but by using your voice with ONE, you can celebrate the great efforts of our elected leaders and encourage continued brave and bold leadership to help save millions of lives in the most impoverished places in Africa.

What a day. Go ONE!

If you live in New Hampshire or Vermont, please join us in the first of a series of local ONE Conference Calls to update you on important local actions, events, and opportunities. Your voice is critically important in making sure that our nation is doing all we can to help save millions of lives around the world.

Please RSVP and join us for these calls and look to the ONE blog for more local calls and actions in your community.

We hope to hear from you soon!

-Matthew Bartlett

ONE member Scott Simpson of Vermont, who helped make Vermont a State of ONE, made it down to his local Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Store in Burlington to check out the new ONE Cheesecake Brownie flavor and explore ONE’s new and unique partnership with the famous Vermont Ice Cream makers.

Scott told me that there was a lot of new excitement around the partnership and many people had seen ONE on Idol Gives Back. He even told me that they had already signed up many new ONE members at the store. Free Cone Day is approaching on April 29th and his local store has agreed to set up a ONE table too.

By uniting as ONE, and ONE lick at a time, we are spreading the word that saving lives in some of the most desperate places on Earth is not only possible in today’s world, it is a priority.

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer

Today, with critical presidential primaries in four states, I and my many ONE member friends and colleagues must work that much harder to raise the profile for global poverty in this country.

Remember, you can look at the candidate’s plans for global poverty on ONE Action’s On The Record site. If you happen to live in Ohio, Texas, Vermont or Rhode Island, you could consider talking about global poverty while in the voting line.

And, as always, stay tuned for more urgent actions in the days, weeks and months ahead.

-Virginia Simmons