January 9th, 2008 at 5:05 pm | posted by Aaron.Banks
Are you ready to make your voice heard in the Nevada caucus, the first presidential nominating contest in the West? We’ve created an easy way for you to write a letter to a likely Nevada caucus-goer. This is your chance to send the message that each vote can help end extreme poverty and global disease.
The decisions that caucus-goers make in Nevada will have a major impact on the race for the presidency. When you ask a Nevadan to visit our On The Record website and learn more about where the candidates stand, you’ll be putting global poverty front and center in the 2008 presidential campaign.
We had a couple of great opportunities to meet with the Obama campaign last week.
On Monday, Senator Obama was in Las Vegas to rally students and young voters. During the event he spoke about the need to help the world’s poor by fighting HIV AIDS and educating children who don’t have access to free education.
After Obama spoke I was able to shake his hand and thank him for going “on the record” for ONE. He said, “Absolutely, I was happy to do it. It’s important.”
On Saturday the Obama campaign and the ONE UNLV Club held a foreign policy forum with Samantha Power. Samantha is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a senior advisor for Senator Obama.
She spoke extensively about US foreign policy, Darfur, and about the ONE Campaign’s goals to eradicate extreme poverty and disease. Many of our volunteers were able attend and engage in a great discussion about why the issues of global disease, hunger, child & maternal health, and education should be a priority for the next president.
Samantha had just returned from speaking to our fellow ONE members in South Carolina and we were happy that she took some time to visit us in Nevada as well!
November 20th, 2007 at 11:58 am | posted by Aaron.Banks
Nevada ONE member Robin Mercer delivered 50,000+ petitions asking Governor Mitt Romney to go on the record and tell us exactly where he stands on fighting extreme poverty and global disease. Will he - and the other presidential candidates - take up the challenge?
Stay tuned.
Update: UNR ONE Club President Tracey Gaffney and club member Adam Allen just presented John Edwards with “On the Record” petitions, too.
Monday, November 5th, marked a great historical moment for the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). At a press conference held by the ONE Club at UNLV, Provost Neil Smatresk represented our University President David Ashley, and read a proclamation declaring UNLV a “ONE Campus!” This proclamation comes at a very unique time as UNLV gets ready to host the CNN Democratic Presidential Candidate debate on November 15th.
Chancellor Jim Rogers was also in attendance as a ONE Vote ‘08 Ambassador to announce a very unique scholarship opportunity for ONE UNLV Club members. UNLV students gathered together and in full force have jumped on the ONE Campus Challenge this week. The press conference was covered by 3 local TV stations and our student paper, The Rebel Yell.
We are excited by all the ways we can earn points for our university. As our basketball team gets ready to begin the new season Rebel fans are anxious to get them in ONE gear at a game. Other future events will include hosting a ONE ROCKS! Concert November 14th to raise awareness of the ONE Campaign and recruit new members.
UNLV is off to a great start and excited about the ONE Campus Challenge. Keep watch while these Rebels with a Cause work their way up in the standings to raise awareness about ONE.
We were thrilled to have SONICFLOOd in Las Vegas last week to play a show and rally ONE members of faith at The Crossing Church. Over 800 people turned out to hear Sonicflood’s inspirational music and message.
Throughout the evening over 150 people signed the declaration, including some of our newest and youngest members. Although some of the youngsters didn’t have email address, they were very pleased to know that their name would be added to the list because they wanted “to help the children live.”
We are lucky to have Pastors Shane Philip, Chris Cooley, and Ben Parker as ONE ambassadors. They held a service on the ONE Campaign in April after which they signed up many members of their congregation and they are also excited about the ONE Sabbath program this month.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:14 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
ONE Vote 08’s core mission is to make global poverty and diseases priorities in the 2008 election, and yet global poverty wasn’t even mentioned once in the last two presidential debates. It’s time that we step up our game.
Right now, ONE members are urging every man and woman running for president to tell us, in writing, where they stand and what plans they have for:
Eradicating malaria;
Improving child and maternal health;
Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis;
Achieving universal primary education; and
Providing access to food and clean water for all.
At the same time, we’re asking all the candidates to speak on camera to ONE members about these commitments.
To increase the impact of this campaign, we’ll be placing newspaper ads in the four critical early primary states asking the candidates to tell us where they stand - and in those ads we’ll let the candidates know just how many ONE Campaign members have already signed the petition.
We are only a few weeks away from the start of the primary elections and the actions we take now could matter even more than they do on Election Day 2008.
ONE offices in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina are humming, as we prepare for the upcoming SONICFLOOd concert!! Known as the “fathers of modern worship music,” the band has agreed to perform at a free concert to raise awareness of global poverty and disease, and to help kick off our new faith-based campaign, ONE Sabbath.
Concerts are at:
The Crossing Church in Las Vegas at 7:00pm on November 7th;
TBD location in New Hampshire at 7:00pm on November 13th:
TBD location in South Carolina at 7:00pm on November 14th :
Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines at 8:30 on November 15th
We’d love to have you and your friends join us!! If you want to help us get ready for this awesome event, give us a call or swing your state’s local office! See you there!!!
Our ONE Ironman, Vance Sutton, has returned to NV from the big race in Hawaii and I wanted to pass along some of his words about the experience.
Vance: Thanks for your heroic effort, and thank you for reminding us that there are thousands of unique ways to raise awareness about global poverty and disease.
-Matt Higginson, Nevada ONE Vote ‘08
“On the day of the race, the ocean was quite calm as it had been in previous days. The prayer offered by the local Hawaiians before the start was absolutely hair raising. It was at that point I realized; time waits for no one. I am 15 minutes away from the absolute biggest day of my sporting life–I am competing in the World Championship of triathlon.
I enter the water with 1800 of my fellow competitors. The water is warm, calm, and clear. Looking back at the crowds surrounding the bay was absolutely incredible. Thousands of them sitting on the sea wall that stretches for about ½ mile.
In the afternoon the wind really picks up on the island and blows right into your face as you crawl back home on the bike section. I wanted to quit so many times, but I kept thinking about the people who supported my efforts by donating $1 per mile to the ONE Campaign.
It got dark about 13 miles into the marathon and they hand you a glow stick that fits around your neck. It’s quite cool to see the glowing circles just bobbing up and down in the darkness from the other racers. Everything slows down mentally and you begin to realize that you’re going to finish…eventually…just keep going.
The last two miles were very interesting. Something inside my mind allowed me to run fast, actually quite fast. Once you begin to see people again and the lights of the city now guide your path, new strength kicks in. I finished strong. Running down the finishing chute is something I wish everyone could experience.
My marathon time was 5 hours and something. Total event time 14:26.
It was such a blessing to have the support of family, friends, and the ONE Campaign. It gave me such great satisfaction to use this race, that by it’s nature is very selfish and individualistic, to help raise awareness about an issue that is much larger than any ONE person.”
It was a thrill to have Mike McCurry in town last week. When Mike got off the plane Monday evening we marched him right across the street to our ONE Candidates Forum at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
The forum was a great success. We invited representatives from every presidential campaign to speak to ONE volunteers and UNLV students about their candidates’ plans to fight poverty and global disease. Participation was great and it was fantastic for our volunteers to hear from each campaign. We signed up 30 new members and UNLV’s ONE club was able to recruit about a dozen new members as well.
Mike was our keynote speaker and discussed his advisory role with ONE and some of the amazing success stories ONE has witnessed since it’s inception. He highlighted how refreshing it is to be involved with a campaign that that unites people from all political parties, quite a change from his former role as White House Press Secretary.
The following day we ran all over town, from a press roundtable at R&R partners with Nevada’s ONE Vote 08 co-chair Billy Vassiliadis, to filming Face to Face with Jon Ralston. Mike finished up the day by speaking with UNLV Law School students and faculty. Over 45 students signed the declaration.
If only we could clone Mike and have him campaigning for ONE in NV every day.
On Monday, October 15, Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas became the 123, 124, 125th “ONE Cities.”
While many may think of the Las Vegas Valley as “what happens here stays here” — Monday’s event proved otherwise. Our elected leaders stepped up to the plate and asked the over 2 million citizens of their respective cities to do the same.
Mayor Goodman of Las Vegas explained the reason he has become such an avid supporter, “I tell you that Las Vegas is a microcosm of the world - we welcome tourists and new residents from all over the world. We are doing our part today to add our collective voice to say enough is enough.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
-Megan Jones
Pictured above: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Clark County Commission Lawrence Weekly, Henderson Mayor Gibson, Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce CEO Kara Kelley
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, volunteers, members and coalition partners.
The content of each post and each comment represent the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ONE Campaign or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
