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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
