What’s Going On In Miami (Ohio)

The library at Miami University in Ohio was abuzz on Monday night, but not from studying. The buzz was a group of students meeting to discuss how to end global poverty. This past semester the student group has been incredibly active in making ONE’s presence known on Miami’s campus.

Led by students Megan Casey, Ashley Leonard and Amanda Beckham, ONE Miami has held several events on and off campus. This semester alone Miami students have held events at local bars and concert halls signing up new members. They also hosted the ONE Bus and collaborated with several other student organizations.

There is no doubt that other campuses can model Miami in starting an organization on their campus and quickly become active. Congratulations to all Miami ONE members on all the work you have done! Keep it up!

-Blake Waggoner

ONE Bus in Birmingham

We made it out to Samford University in Birmingham AL on Monday, October 27th. There were numerous volunteers that came out to the bus to help out by passing out literature and wristbands. Being parked in the circle, which was directly in front of the student center, made it almost impossible for the students to ignore us. Not to mention, pizza was served and as we all know is a huge hit, especially with the college crowds!

-Megan Schweizer

Things are looking up in Northland

On Sunday, ONE had the pleasure of being invited to bring the ONE bus to Northland Church in Orlando, Florida. Northland is an Evangelical Church in the Orlando community of Longwood. Since the church has 10,000 members this was a huge stop for us. The ONE bus pulled up to Northland Church at 8:00 on Sunday morning greeted by Sarah Mattingly, who helped ONE to get the bus approved at Northland. We would like to especially thank her for spending the day with us outside speaking to people. During all three services the praise pastor fully endorsed ONE and asked the attendees of each service to go out to learn more.

We were able to sign up over 700 new ONE members. After the last service, ONE staff was asked to stay and speak to the 100 + college-age group. We jumped at the opportunity and while I spoke about ONE, Sara Paterni worked the crowd getting as many volunteers as possible to sign up and answer any questions. ONE made a great partner and lots of new friends. We look forward to working closely with Northland in the near future.

-Jedidiah Hall, FL ONE Field Organizer

ONE Bus Ventures into Gainesville

The ONE bus arrived in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday. Greeting the bus at Plaza of the Oaks on University Blvd, were 15 of our ONE club members and interns. Our ONE group at the University of Florida secured a place for the bus at the busy plaza. Throughout the day ONE staff helped the ONE group at UF to speak to hundreds of people visiting the plaza. We also signed up 150 new members.

As a ONE city Gainesville was very well represented while the bus garnered new members from throughout the city. We were also able to sign new UF students up for the group at the University. ONE had a wonderful day while in Gainesville. ONE staff would like to thank the people and leadership of Gainesville.

-Jedidiah Hall, FL ONE Field Organizer

ONE Bus Goes Bongo’s!

Last Thursday there was an amazing collaboration between the ONE Campaign and the Stand Up and Take Action comity at Bongo’s Cuban Café in Miami, FL.

Numerous bands performed, local artists came to display their work, and ONE volunteers lined the entrance asking people to sign the ONE Declaration before they entered the party. We passed a big ONE banner around the crowd for signatures and will ship it to our D.C. office later this month.

What a great vibe we had going at the party all night!! We had so much fun throwing the five-hour long celebration.

-Megan Schweizer

ONE Bus goes back to high school

Last Friday the ONE Bus stopped outside the Pembroke Pines Charter High School in an effort to rally the campus community to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. The Pines Charter ONE club sponsored the event and came out in full force to help spread the word about ONE to their classmates. At the end of the day, we signed up close to 900 new members!

The Pines Charter ONE Club began under the leadership of English teacher Danielle DePas, a long time Miami ONE volunteer. Starting with just a few members, the club’s President Rafael Batista and Vice President Ruben Ferrer have successfully grown the club to include over 200 students and faculty. Club members actively reach out to the student body and the campus community to raise awareness about poverty.

With great music blaring in the background and the ONE Bus as the backdrop, the students were able to energize and excite their existing ONE base and recruit new members to help raise awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and ways to become more involved, both locally and globally in addressing these issues.

-Sara Paterni

ONE Bus moves through Ohio

It isn’t just college campuses that the ONE Bus rumbles through. Day three of the ONE Bus’ Ohio tour took it to Main Street in Chillicothe. The bus was greeted by several supporters as well as members of one of the most active ONE groups in Ohio.

Drivers on Main Street could not miss the bus, not only because of its size, but also because of the volunteers standing on the street waving ONE signs as they drove by. The bus was joined by the local Obama campaign organizer and a local youth pastor, who spoke on the morality of solving global poverty. Many in the crowd were moved by the youth pastor’s message, and stated that they would be motivated on behalf of ONE Vote ’08 through the election.

-Megan Schweizer

UN Summit Recap

I thought I should share some inside skinny on the week we spent in New York September 22-26 at the UN’s special summit on the Millennium Development Goals. We went there to try to attract some attention to - indeed celebrate - the efforts against extreme poverty in recent years, and to call for an acceleration of that progress.

Bono was frantically blogging for the Financial Times in every spare second throughout the week on his way to and from meetings with various leaders. The meetings were many: with Spanish President Zapatero to plan for their E.U. presidency in 2010; with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia to discuss their remaining private commercial debt (think that’s sorted now); with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to push on the overall Millennium Goals project; and with President Sarkozy of France and President Barroso of the EU to push Europe on delivering an extra billion euros from the EU budget to fight hunger and invest in agricultural productivity in Africa. Bob Geldof arrived a few days into the melee and participated on the opening panel of the Clinton Global Initiative, popped up on CNN, and met with Mayor Bloomberg, Bill Gates and others along the way.

One highlight was unveiling our “Celebrate Accelerate” video to a crowd of activists and leaders (including Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Jeff Sachs) honoring the “quietest storm in town”: the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Another, was dropping in on the “In My Name” launch where we regrouped with will.i.am and other activist allies.

An important part of the week was passing over ONE members’ hunger petition, with 50,000 signers, to Bob Orr, the Assistant Secretary General. The petition targets Ban Ki-moon, and all the G8 leaders, asking them to finance the current $1 billion gap in worldwide agricultural financing.

In addition to all of this, Kim Smith and a team of staff and volunteers brought the ONE Bus to town and, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, parked it in some highly visible locations in the city.

By September 26th, it was clear it had been a decent week. In total there were $16 billion worth of commitments, some old, and some new, focused largely on building upon success to get more kids in school; eliminating malaria deaths by 2015 (yes, that’s got chutzpah – but by acting together it can be done); and renewing efforts against maternal mortality and hunger.

By investing in the fight against extreme poverty we can create new and stable markets where currently there are none; build strong global growth engines that can keep the global economy going when some of us falter; ensure strong health systems; and ensure that other’s instability doesn’t become ours. Above all - because it’s morally the right thing to do.

So now this piece of the campaign goes on to upcoming votes in Brussels on agriculture funding, and a key meeting about financing for development that is happening in Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East, at the end of November. We’ll keep you updated on both.

-Jamie Drummond

ONE @ OSU

The ONE Bus recently wrapped up a great tour through Ohio. The bus’ first Ohio stop was this past Saturday when it joined a OSU Buckeye football tailgate. Our tailgating neighbors were very enthusiastic about ONE and it wasn’t long before scores of students were standing in front of the ONE Bus cheering, “Buckeyes for ONE!” The event was incredibly successful in signing up hundreds of new ONE members and aising our profile.

The last Ohio stop was Monday and also at OSU, except this time parked right on campus. ONE Vote ’08 State Co-Chairmen and former Congressman John Kasich joined the bus, talked about global poverty and signed up new members. The bus was even greeted by McCain and Obama Ohio campaign staff, who came out to show their support for ONE.

-Megan Schweizer

ONE Bus in the news!

Check out this great article about Megan’s adventures aboard the ONE Bus that ran in yesterday’s Bowling Green Daily News. As you know, Megan’s been travelling with the ONE Bus for some time now, and will be rolling through Ohio this weekend after spending some time in Kentucky.

Be sure to check out our ONE Bus page for the details and send Megan good vibes while she’s out there on the road spreading the word about our fight against extreme poverty and disease.

Excerpts below, full piece here

After learning about the One Campaign organization three years ago at the University of Louisville, Schweizer became an active member in spreading the word to politicians on issues such as extreme poverty and global health.

This year, Schweizer “jumped on the bus,” and joined several others across the country in touring the United States in an 18-wheeler to remind future leaders of the country about issues that could impact the world.

Schweizer said the bus has definitely made an impact on the presidential candidates, as One’s causes are something “they can both agree on.”

-Chris Scott