U2 360 Tour
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of meeting a crew of amazing ONE volunteers who had worked for eight hours before the DC U2 show signing up thousands of new members. I posted the first batch of their profiles here, below are profiles of more outstanding volunteers.
Deidre Bennet is from Rockville, MD, and has been a ONE volunteer for at least three years. She’s met with her Maryland representatives many times to talk about ONE’s issues, hosted a ton of events, and most recently, signed up new ONE members at the Virgin Festival. She said that today she’d already signed up people from all over – including from Florida, Pennsylvania and even Puerto Rico.
Matt lives in DC now but is originally from California. He works full time on the issue of climate change but he took the day off from his job to volunteer for ONE. He’s been energized by how enthusiastic people have been when he tells them about ONE. (Side note, Matt got a text message during the day alerting him that he was an uncle. Congratulations Matt!)
Nancy Delgado (on the right above) has been a ONE member for some time but this was her first time helping out in person. She got an email from Matt Higginson asking for local volunteers, and she jumped right in!
Kimberly Richer (on the left above) is from Centerville, Virginia, and has been a ONE member for at least four years. She helped set up a meeting with Congressman Wolf in July. When I talked to her she had already signed up at least 75 new people.
Maria lives in DC and has been a ONE member since the Live 8 concerts in 2005. She’s volunteered a lot since then, including helping delivery Water for the Poor Act petitions to the Congress this summer and signing up new members at the Islamic Society of North America Convention over fourth of July weekend this year. I chatted with Maria while she recharged the RED laptop she was using to sign up new members around the FedEx Field parking lot.
Evan Haaz is from Texas but lives in DC now. This was his first time volunteering for ONE. He said that he doesn’t usually get involved with causes but that he made an exception for ONE and said he was having a really fun time.
Abby is a student at Johns Hopkins. She said she’d been a ONE member for a while, and U2 fan all her life — and this was her first time volunteering with ONE.
Kim Rogers (who we somehow didn’t get a photo of from the day) is from Iowa and lives in DC now. She did a lot of volunteering for ONE in Iowa during 2008 elections, including a bunch of work around the Iowa straw polls. She said that everyone had been really receptive at the show. Her best victory of the day? She signed up a couple from Austria who have been following the tour since Europe. They’ve been to every show, but Kim was the first volunteer to finally sign them up!
-Ginny Simmons
Every U2 show, 20-30 amazing volunteers arrive eight hours early to sign up thousands of fans to ONE. They spend that time walking the enormous parking lots and outside the stadiums with giant smiles and handy RED laptops — and they are the reason this U2 tour is bringing in so many new supporters to the fight against global poverty.
Yesterday afternoon, Morgana and I were able to head to the DC show a little early to spend time with the amazing crew of volunteers who had came out to work the DC show. In between their stints signing up members, I was able to learn a bit about some of them. Below are profiles of a few. I’ll post more later today.
Daisy lives in Northern Virginia and has been an active volunteer for ONE since the spring. She’s attended the ONE town hall in Williamstown in April with Virginia Representatives Nye and Wittman, helped deliver petitions for the Water for the World Act this summer and helped organize meetings between ONE volunteers and members of Congress this August.
Will said that he’s been a ONE supporter since 2004 (!) but that this was his first time volunteering for the organization. He said he had a really amazing time meeting so many people from across country and even world at the show – and reflected on the power of music to bring people together, and even better- to bring people together for a great cause like ONE.
Sara Edan Friar is from Silverspring Maryland and has been a ONE member since 2007. She helped show ONE visibility at the first Democrat candidate debate of the 2008 presidential election at Howard University and helped sign up new ONE members at Virgin Festival earlier this year.
Check back for more U2 show volunteer profiles later today.
I just returned from the U2 show at FedEx Field just outside of Washington, DC and as anyone who’s been to a concert on the U2 360 Tour can attest to, it was quite an amazing experience.
In front of a sold out crowd, Bono dedicated the song “One” to the United States congress and the leadership of President Bush “for the 4 million souls that are now very much alive because of ARV drugs paid for by the United States…God Bless America.” He mentioned people in the audience who had lost friends or relatives to AIDS in America and singled out Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul, who were early campaigners against the pandemic in San Francisco. Bono also praised President Obama’s commitment to the fight against poverty in Africa and paid special respects to Senator Ted Kennedy for his leadership on peace in Northern Ireland and Eunice Kennedy for being a mentor to him.
Behind the scenes, ONE members and volunteers were busy spreading ONE’s message and recruiting new members in the fight against extreme poverty. Our efforts were no doubt greatly supported by Bono’s several shout-outs to ONE and the hard work of millions of people around the world to end global poverty.
We’ll have more tomorrow including pictures and one-on-one interviews with some of the fantastic ONE volunteers we met.
-Chris Scott
Tonight the U2 360 Tour> comes to town, and DC ONE Staff will be there to help sign up new members, spread the good word about ONE, and enjoy the music.
All over Europe and North America, ONE members have been turning out in droves at these concerts to recruit new ONE members eager to join in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. Tonight we’ll get a chance to see it in action.
We’ll be updating the ONE Blog with photos and reactions, and Tweeting throughout the night in real time. So keep your eyes peeled!
After three months on the road with the U2 360 tour, I’m now passing the torch (well, walkie-talkie since we didn’t have a torch) to Matt Higginson.
I’ve had a fantastic time, meeting ONE members around Europe and North America and working with our volunteers to sign up tens of thousands of new folks. But, now Matt is back from leave so I have a chance to head home to London and get back to mobilising our global membership to take action on some key upcoming moments.
Thank you to everyone who helped along the way, especially the hundreds of energetic and passionate volunteers who really did all the hard work of signing up new members. I hope to see you all again soon and that you’ll join me in wishing Matt good luck with the rest of the tour.
-Weldon Kennedy
I’ve never thought about driving to a large parking lot and having a party out of the back of my car. As such, it’s hardly surprising that the phenomenon of tailgating took me a little bit by surprise. But here on the North American U2 tour, the stadium parking lots turn into a massive series of parties, each of which is a veritable gold mine for new ONE members. It’s fantastic.
Just as every city and stadium presents a different way to sign up ONE members, I also find there are people with a variety of motives for joining. Everyone has a different reason for joining, from people who have a personal experience with extreme poverty to environmentalists who are concerned that not enough is being done to help the poor adapt to climate change. Whatever the person’s reason for joining, all it takes is a few seconds of introduction to ONE for most people to be convinced that they want to be members. And hence, I love all the tailgaters who give time (and sometimes food) to my ONE volunteers. Party on in the parking lot.
-Weldon Kennedy
The U2 360 spaceship has landed in North America, and we’re off to a rockin’ start. Matt (who’ll be running the tour for most of the North American tour) met me in Chicago and we ran around town gathering T-shirts, wristbands, and our new tabling set up. Everything was in perfect order, including the weather. I’m told the odds of 4 September days of 72 degree sunny weather is an near impossibility in Chicago, but that’s what we got.
Our 30 volunteers were in good form, recruiting new members by the thousands. The biggest obsticale they ran into was that many of the fans were already ONE members. Not a bad problem to have!
I’m in Toronto now, and ready to get rolling on another two shows. I hope to see you at a show soon!
-Weldon Kennedy
