So, I have had one whirlwind time since we won the OCC! First of all, there’s school and finals getting ready…but enough about that!
Our whole campus was abuzz about our win. It was GREAT! The very next day, there were tons of emails and people asking when the concert was and telling all of us how happy they were that we won.
But the concert. That was our prize, and everyone had their eyes on the prize! Our campus administration was extremely excited to work with the ONE crew on the concert and was so happy to plan such a fun event.
The concert though was AMAZING! My crew was able to meet Vampire Weekend before the show (they are SO nice!). And then I got to introduce the band with Kimberly which was so much fun!
And then there was the concert. Everybody had a blast! There was so much energy and EVERYONE knew all of the words to all of the songs. Vampire Weekend really knows how to do a show!
Everyone, better start getting ready for next year’s OCC! I was talking to Nick about Webster’s plans for next year and they’re good!
Thanks everyone for making this year’s OCC so much fun and good luck on finals!
And as a prep for next year, GAME ON!
Hope that’s good! Thank you so much for being so awesome this year Maisie! The concert was amazing and everyone loved it!
Tuesday night the Luther College ONE Campaign Chapter hosted Natalie Sugira an emigrant from Rwanda that shared her story of success. Natalie was the one of the ONE Vote ‘08 co-chairs for the State of Iowa. Natalie’s story helped 72 Luther students understand the issues of extreme poverty and preventable disease.
This was our largest student turn out we have ever had, and students were very responsive to our issues. I would say over all our hunger banquet was a great success! I would highly recommend trying to do an OXFAM Hunger Banquet on your campus to help others understand what hunger looks like!
Webster University may not have won this year’s OCC, but that didn’t stop me from seeing Vampire Weekend perform. Neither did an 11-hour drive. At 6 AM last Friday I hopped in my car and took off for Wofford University in Spartansburg, South Carolina.
Despite the long drive, I arrived just in time to see Wofford’s athletic field filling up with people. Despite Wofford’s size, their turnout was impressive. Hundreds came out to watch Vampire Weekend perform as the sun set and the stage lights grew bright. Tomas and I grabbed a spot right in front of the bass player.
I want to give a big shout out to Tomas for inviting me via Twitter just a couple days before the concert. It is no wonder Wofford won the ONE Campus Challenge. Their ONE team was very welcoming and gladly showed me around campus.
Now, I didn’t see any cows or giant peaches like Maisie and Kimberly did on their drive, but I did have a couple of adventures on my own. After having breakfast the day after the concert with my Aunt in North Carolina I decided to take the scenic route back to the interstate. Ironically, at the top of Fryingpan Mountain my car overheated! I enjoyed the scenery for a bit then coasted down the mountain to a gas station to top off my oil.
Speaking of topping off, I stopped for gas in Tennessee and got a bit more than I needed. While checking my oil I heard a spewing sound and peaked out from under the hood to see gas spewing out of the tank! I lost a couple of gallons, but managed to get it cleaned up and headed back home.
Thanks Tomas and ONE for an excellent reason to take a road trip!
As college students, OCCers are perhaps some of the most qualified ONE members out there to write about the importance of education — in your local communities as well as globally. Well, here’s your chance.
ONE is teaming with the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to support The Big Read: a new storybook encouraging literacy and education for everyone. Contributions to the book come from influential figures including Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan as well as Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, Natalie Portman, Paulo Coelho and others.
This is a fantastic opportunity for an OCC student to step up and put those classroom-honed writing skills, and OCC-honed advocacy skills, to the test. You don’t have to be a famous hero, world leader or even a leader in OCC to be in the running on this challenge. What we want is a compelling narrative telling the story of a ONE advocate. YOUR story is exactly the one we want to share with the world.
The Big Read book will be translated and distributed in over 100 countries as a tool for promoting literacy and good quality, free and public education for everyone. Children in other countries are going to learn to read using this book. And on June 16, the Day of the African Child, ONE will join GCE to present The Big Read to President Obama — with our request that he keep his promise to ensure children in developing countries have access to basic education through a U.S. contribution of $2 billion to a Global Fund for Education.
Yesterday morning, Kimberly and I packed up a minivan with a few hundred ONE shirts, threw together some roadtrip mixes, and hit the road en route to Spartanburg, SC for the final prize concert by Vampire Weekend at Wofford College. Along our 8 hour drive, we bought Preacher’s Cookies and fried peach pie at the best gas station in America, saw a cow that had escaped pasture casually grazing along I-81 South (I was concerned for the cow and called highway police…), and came across a giant peach posing as a water tower. Eventful drive!
Upon arriving in South Carolina, Kimberly and I were not at dinner for more than ten minutes before the hostess told me she had the same shirt as I did (it took me a second to realize she meant my ONE shirt) and that she was really excited to get a ONE Chapter going at Samford University in Alabama when she starts there next fall (Take note, Jayme!!) Then, 10 minutes later, when our food came out, the server informed us that ONE makes his favorite ice cream – ONE Cheesecake Brownie by Ben and Jerry’s. This place is unquestionably ONE-friendly!
After dinner, we met Tomas and Sarah on campus. We learned that Wofford’s mascot is a Boston Terrier because a rogue little dog bit the pitcher of an opposing baseball team (no, seriously) and that Wofford’s campus has more trees than people! Kimberly and I are both pretty psyched to help the ONE Wofford group keep the energy going until the concert (although I don’t think they need us for that.)
Stay tuned to the OCC Blog for more updates on Wofford’s final prize!
This Friday, April 24 at 7 PM on the Intramural Field at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC) proudly presents the 2009 Grand Prize event: a free concert by Vampire Weekend!
Spin magazine declared Vampire Weekend “The Year’s Best New Band” (March 2008 issue), and Rolling Stone magazine says had the “10th best album of 2008” (January 2009 issue). Check out Vampire Weekend’s music video for their hit song, A-Punk, below:
Each year, as a final project, students in a marketing class at Baylor University in Texas are encouraged to compete against one another to develop a marketing strategy for an assigned company. While many groups chose to develop a new product, one group of students decided to make a greater impact in the world by developing a campaign to promote fair trade.
Baylor marketing students Tanner Vickers, Cathleen Moss, Rachel Wisner, Rachel Hill, and Natalie Pavela developed a fair trade campaign for the Hershey’s brand. As part of their project, they will be competing against other groups in their class to win a chance to present their marketing idea to Hershey. If the students win the contest, they will have a unique opportunity to present their fair trade idea to a major corporation.
“Hershey has a huge opportunity to separate itself in the marketplace as a company that is socially responsible,” Baylor student Tanner Vickers said. “Fair trade provides an opportunity to create a healthy expansion of third world economies as they gain from the world market.”
Greetings from Pennsylvania! It wouldn’t be Spring for Central PA ONE Members without kicking off the outdoor advocacy season held annually at Lebanon Valley College’s “ValleyFest”! This is the third year in a row PA ONE Members have participated in the college’s Spring event and once again as in years past it was a great success! Over 365 people stopped to sign up as new ONE Members with many asking how they could become more involved with ONE’s advocacy efforts.
LVC college band “Double Entendre” rocked the Quad asking people throughout their set to please stop by our ONE tent and join the fight against global poverty and disease. Many thanks to Double Entendre and all of the PA ONE Members who helped make the day an amazing ONE!
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) owns an incredible 3,217 metric tons of gold. At the recent G20 summit, world leaders committed to using funds from selling a small fraction of that gold to help developing countries that are struggling to prevent 53 million people from slipping into poverty by 2010.
Please click here to sign our petition to the Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Khan asking him to use funds from the gold sales to help the world’s poorest countries in ways that won’t create debt or hurt their economies with harmful new conditions:
Petition:
Please use the revenue from gold sales to create as much funding as possible for developing countries and ensure that this doesn’t create new debts or have harmful conditions attached.
Let’s make sure the IMF hears from us that this sale is a golden opportunity to help the world’s poorest people without costing us anything at all. Please add your name to our petition, and send a message that the world is watching and demanding the IMF take action now.
The OCC Blog is a daily log of the ONE Campus Challenge, a friendly competition to determine which university's student body has the most effective global poverty-fighting campaign. The site is operated by ONE staff, Campus Outreach Ambassadors (COAs), and Campus Leaders.
The content of each post represents the views of that post's author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
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