“Future needs a big kiss, wind blows with a twist…”
-Opening lyrics from the new U2 song “Get Your Boots On”
Here at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, ONE volunteers are taking pictures of U2 fans giving the future a big kiss and kissing poverty goodbye – some of those pictures will be on the giant video screens after the show.
We’ve had all kinds of people sign up at past tour stops, but today brought a first. Check out ONE volunteer Sandra Moraga and Officer Mike from the Pasadena police force. You have the right to pucker up!
If you were at the U2 show in Washington, DC, you may remember that we were joined by many political leaders that night. And in Las Vegas on Friday, Bono gave a big shout out to “another Elvis in the building this evening, the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.”
Bill Clinton and Bono at a Clinton Global Initiative event in 2007
At the stop before Vegas, Bono welcomed the McCain family, who joined us in their home state of Arizona.
Cindy McCain volunteering with ONE at the Republican National Convention in 2008
So if you’re planning being at either of the last two shows in Los Angeles or Vancouver, you can be sure ONE will be there, and who knows who else might show up.
With only two more stops on the U2 360 tour after Friday’s show in Las Vegas, it seems an appropriate time to look back and say thanks to two guys who have done so much to make ONE’s little piece of the tour a smash success: Matt Higginson and Weldon Kennedy.
Weldon Kennedy is in the front row on the far left. Matt Higginson is front and center.
Weldon took a break from his regular job in London as a campaigner to organize ONE members at tour stops across Europe this past summer. In Barcelona, Dublin, Gelsenkirchen and lots of places in between, Weldon and ONE members from many countries,speaking many languages, never let weather get them down and did something even more impressive than massively expanding ONE’s European membership. They created communities of activists and friends who are fired up to work together to end global poverty.
Weldon started us off on the North American leg of the U2 360 tour, but it’s ONE Field Organizer Matt Higginson, who took over in Washington, DC, who is finishing in Vancouver on Wednesday.
We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada as I write this, the city where Matt makes his home with his wife Elizabeth and 6 month-old son Topher. I would say Matt’s in better spirits than usual as a result, and he very well might be. But you’d never know, because Matt’s infectious enthusiasm has never wavered.
In fact, both Weldon and Matt have shown a valuable skill for putting our awesome ONE volunteers at ease, and making approaching total strangers at U2 concerts and asking them to join ONE and become anti-poverty activists – no easy thing – a lot of fun.
Between them, Matt and Weldon will have gone to 30 cities in 12 countries and signed up more than 75,000 new ONE members by the time the 2009 U2 360 tour wraps up in Vancouver on Wednesday. And I think I speak for a whole lot of ONE members who’ve worked with them, when I say thank you and we’d be glad to hit the road with you guys anytime.
An incredible group of ONE volunteers came out to the U2 Phoenix concert on Tuesday night and signed up two thousand new members. Just as impressive are their different backgrounds and the stories of how they got involved with ONE. These are a few of them.
Sarah Atwill (on the right) is a sophomore at Arizona State University and a Campus Outreach Ambassador for the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC) making her responsible for working with OCC chapters in Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Hawaii and Alaska. At Arizona State, her chapter has already banded University President Michael Crow and is coming after mascot Sparky next. Sarah has big plans and told me that she’s committed to turning 60,000 Sun Devils into a powerful force in the fight against global poverty.
Kelly Hatzel (on the left) is a student at South Mountain Community College where she looks forward to starting an OCC chapter and getting more involved with ONE. Kelly believes Arizonans need more ways to engage on the big global issues of our time. To that end, she thinks we can all make a difference, from wherever we are, and is excited to bring ONE not only her to campus, but to the larger community as well.
Hassan Shariff is an old pro at volunteering with ONE at concerts. He was already a ONE members when he volunteered with us at the Dave Matthews Band concert in Phoenix in 2006. Hassan is also active in the local artistic community, helping to promote the fight against global poverty through the First Friday events in Phoenix. In addition to his work with ONE, Hassan is active with WHEAT – World Hunger Education, Advocacy & Training.
Cami, Ryan and their 13 year-old son Bryce MacDonald were great volunteers with an amazing story to share. Five months ago, Ryan flew to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC is one of the poorest countries on earth, still ensnared in war that causes untold suffering everyday. But Ryan’s trip was also filled with great joy, because he went to Kinshasa to adopt two children, Solange and Joseph, an 8 year-old and 6 year-old orphaned brother and sister.
Malnourished then, the pair have made a full recovery and are “doing great” adapting to their new lives, according to Cami. Still, she describes the heartache of hearing Solange, who watched her parents die of preventable diseases, ask “Why are all the doctors here in America?” Her simple question is a poignant reminder of the importance of our ongoing work advocating for greater health care infrastructure and capacity in the developing world.
Cami also shared a much sadder story with me. In the picture, you can see that she’s wearing a button with the picture of a baby girl on it. That girl is Cassie, also an orphan in the DRC, and she was in the process of being adopted by friends of the MacDonald’s, when she died of malaria at an orphanage in Kinshasa. Fortunately, they’re on their way to adopting another baby girl, Chloe,
For the MacDonald’s, working with ONE is a way of teaching Bryce, that as wonderful as his new brother and sister are doing here, there is much more work to be done if we’re going to beat global poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
We’re so grateful for all the hard work and inspiring stories ONE members are sharing with us on tour. If you’re planning on going to the Las Vegas, Los Angeles or Vancouver shows, make sure to look for the ONE booth and say hi to our great volunteers.
U2 fans will know what I’m talking about when I say that “The future needs a big kiss” – hint: it’s from the lead single from the band’s new album “No Line on the Horizon.” And at shows across two continents, the band has been asking concert-goers to send the future a big kiss by posing for kiss photos, some of which end up on the big screen at the end of the show, and all of which end up on our tour page.
ONE volunteers have been helping to make that happen by roaming the various concert venues and taking photos of kissing fans. If you’ve been to a U2 show recently, you’ve probably seen the people in ONE T-shirts with cameras. You can see their results from the most recent show here:
But who are these photographers? In Phoenix, I spent some time with two great ONE volunteers who got a lot of people smooching, Mike and Destinee, and found out.
Mike Feyrer
Mike is professional photographer – and it shows in the great photos he took – and three years ago he visited Ghana to take pictures and learn more about that incredible country. He described it as a transformative event in his life: “I saw the incredible impact of economic development and visited many of the same sites Bono did.” Already a ONE member, he came back with an even stronger commitment to be an advocate for the world’s poorest people. He particularly appreciates ONE’s bipartisan approach and openness to all people, regardless of their background.
Destinee Mack
Destinee is a new ONE member who found out about ONE from her friend Hassan Shariff, a longtime ONE member profiled here. In fact, Destinee was the person to sign up at the show, quickly entering her information in one of our (RED) laptops. She was so excited to volunteer with ONE, she spent the entire night before the concert reading up about ONE and our issues at ONE.org, and a had a great time taking photos and learning on the fly.
This weekend was the annual Global Day of Action when people all of the world Stand Up and Take Action to end global poverty and at last night’s U2 concert in Norman, Oklahoma, 50,000+ U2 fans stood up to show their support.
They’re joining millions of people around the world – a Guinness Book of World Records 116 million stood up last year! – to show solidarity with the world’s poorest people and demand action on meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty and disease worldwide by 2015.
Check out ONE members Standing Up at the show, after a long day of taking action against global poverty and signing up more than 2,000 new ONE members:
At the U2 concert last night, I had the chance to catch up with Andrew Silvestri, who came out to volunteer with ONE in his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, and previously worked on our ONE Vote ’08 initiative last year. He was joined by his brother Eric and sister-in-law Tara. They took a quick break from signing up new ONE members to talk with me about how they got involved with ONE.
Eric and Tara have long been passionate about global development and Tara are getting ready to move to Costa Rica, where Eric plans to pursue a Masters Degree in International Law and Human Rights from the United Nations School of Peace in Costa Rica. And just a year and a half ago, they adopted Malak, a baby boy from Ethiopia. ONE is part of how they stay connected to Africa.
Andrew credited his time at ONE working on global poverty, with his decision to change the focus of his graduate program at the Kennedy School of Government to African development.
From left to right, Andrew, Tara and Eric Silvestri volunteering with ONE at the Norman, OK U2 show
The Slivestris are three more in the long line of incredible ONE volunteers we’ve seen at every stop on the U2 tour, from Barcelona back in July, to Norman yesterday. Their commitment is the “wind to our backs” that Archbishop Desmond Tutu talks about in his video message during the show, and a huge part of the reason for our optimism that this generation will be the one to end global poverty.
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