U2 360° Tour

Why I volunteered for ONE

Aug 11th, 2011 3:48 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

The U2 360° Tour may be over but the memories are still fresh for the amazing ONE members who helped out around the world. One such volunteer from the show in Moncton, Canada wrote about his experience.

Ah eloquence. How I wish it didn’t squeeze out from between my fingers so easily. How easily the emotions can run out and release like a stream into the ocean of the brain. How difficult it is to recreate the spirituality of a moment. Impossible nearly. Impossible to tell you what it feels like to stand on a stage in front of 80,000 people while your favorite band plays an emotional song behind you, while the drums pound the ground and in turn the steel web of the floor, and in turn the soles of your feet, and in turn the very soul of your soul. You giggle and the tears stream down your face at once. This, I hope everyone experiences.

I hope everyone experiences not necessarily standing on the stage but the emotional and spiritual sort of release that simultaneously makes you feel as human as it makes you feel bigger than life as it makes you feel as though you are quite certainly the smallest and most insignificant particle of dust in a giant universe. Unfortunately, with or without U2 or music of any kind or art or a standing on top of a mountain or a family’s love or anything else that sets one’s soul ablaze, there are 40,000 people that die every day, most having never known that sort of moment. Tuberculosis, Malaria, HIV, Cholera, hosts of others: horrible, preventable afflictions that needlessly take the lives of the extremely poor and not the relatively wealthy, stealing opportunities to experience both the kind of awesome power and the quiet mundane that those of us in the developed world get to experience.

A few days ago, I was asked to write about why I volunteered for ONE at the final show of the U2360° tour in Moncton, New Brunswick. I sat stumped for days while I claimed business. I searched for eloquence. I searched for a way to reconcile my selfishness of putting an equal priority on signing up new members to a cause that I believe to be of the utmost importance with walking on the stage in front of my peers, fellow constituents, foreign nationals, elders, strangers, and idols. For anyone who has seen a U2360° show, the volunteers for ONE and Amnesty International leave their mark: During Walk On, they walk out onto the stage; during the first leg of the tour to wear the mask of Aung San Suu Kyi, the since released Burmese political prisoner guilty of nothing but winning an election. While the goal is obviously to sign up new members for ONE, this is no tiny carrot to dangle in front of a U2 fan.

Our day started at 1pm in the pouring rain. We met the other 28 volunteers at the front gate and walked past the dripping wet masses into the concert grounds. We slogged through the rain and puddles and mud down to the ONE tent, located just to the outside of the grandstands. We were giving our marching orders and gear, with the soundtrack of Arcade Fire’s soundcheck ringing in our ears. Having volunteered at a couple of 360° shows before, I knew a few tricks about how and where to sign up new members. After trudging back out to the line for a few signatures, we went inside prior to their arrival to the pitch. Once inside, we went to the inner circle, empty of people other than security guards and the band Carney, who were soundchecking at the time. We huddled beneath one of the massive legs of the stage, trying futilely to escape the driving rain. Not missing an opportunity, we signed up all of the security guards who had the same (bad) idea.

For the next 5 hours, we met very little resistance to our cause: It’s amazing how agreeable everyone is once the rain has cleared off and they’ve gotten a nice spot to stand about 8 feet away from the stage. We could have sold them vacuum cleaners. One guy from Ontario proclaimed “This is the greatest day of my life!” and then requested that I give him a hug. I obliged. Then signed him up. I found a friend and signed him up, and his wife, and his friend, and his friend’s wife. I met a group from the UK, a group from Iceland, another from Brazil. Plenty from the United States from California to Maine, and the most from Canada. The Canadians lived up to their reputation for being the kindest people in the world. Those who hadn’t heard of ONE didn’t hesitate after having heard ten seconds of my thirty second pitch. The few who were reluctant eventually bent. One way or another I would find resonance, global cause or personal.

I was lucky my iPad held up to the downpour. My girlfriend, who is a saint, wasn’t so lucky. There are restrictions to using technology to sign people up rather than the good old pen and paper. She retreated to home base without me, and without anything to do decided to flip badges and start signing up new people for Amnesty international (saint!), who still subscribed to the method of the scribe. After a very successful run there, explaining the missions of both Amnesty and ONE (since she still had the shirt on), she finally took a break and ate. I spotted her sitting in the bleachers alone and tried to wave (despite looking like a donkey, no doubt) while I worked through Carney’s set. For 5 straight hours I signed people up. It flew by while I was making new friends, discussing how far they’d traveled, how excited they were, how soaked they were, and how little they minded. I didn’t eat or drink or use the restroom. And I loved every minute of it. In the end, both her and I did indeed get tapped to participate in the show, as you may have guessed.

So why did I volunteer for ONE? I did it because I was needed. I did it because it was the right thing to do. I did it because there was no choice. I did it to be a voice for those who have none. I did it because I got to meet hundreds of fantastic people, including the new members, the locals, my fellow volunteers, and U2′s personnel. I did it because I got to go on stage with U2! I did it because I got to share an amazing, unforgettable, indescribable moment with 80,000 people, my beautiful woman, and 4 very, very good Irishmen. So is there any real need to reconcile this? Selfish or unselfish or a mix of both? Immaterial. Nothing to do but leave it behind.

Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own

Aug 5th, 2011 2:00 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

If you asked me a year ago today what I would be doing in 2011, my response would have been ramping up ONE engagement and membership in the Great Lakes States in the US. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I’d be travelling to New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and literally crisscrossing North America on behalf of ONE with the U2 360° Tour. 2010 – 2011 will definitely be a year that I’ll never forget.

I have always known that ONE members are special. ONE is an advocacy organization, so members use the power of their voices for people who do not have one. ONE doesn’t fundraise…ONE doesn’t have a membership fee…ONE doesn’t directly deal with dollars, euros or pounds. We connect the dots. We’re a bridge. Our strength is in our numbers….people from around the world coming together as ONE. And the numbers that were gained along the way on the U2 360° tour proves that ONE is an extremely strong organization and getting stronger each day!

In total, just shy of 315,000 people around the world have become ONE members and are currently fighting against extreme poverty as a direct result of the efforts made by almost 3,000 ONE volunteers at the 110 U2 360° shows across the globe.

ONE volunteers that I have met along the way have been an incredible group of people. I have met people from around the world….People from different socio-economic, political and religious backgrounds. But in the true spirit of ONE, everyone came together to fight for those living in extreme poverty and dying of treatable and preventable diseases.

Every single day since I started on this tour, I have been constantly impressed and inspired by the ONE volunteers that I have worked with. Their passion, their commitment, their positive energy, kept me going…even when I was working off of two hours sleep! ONE members give me hope that we’re actually making progress on the ground, and for that, I thank you.

The community that was built on this tour is a solid one and ONE that is committed to making a real difference in this world. I played a very small role and I thank everyone that was involved in the efforts. I have faith that the ONE volunteers and the new ONE members will continue to come together as ONE and make sure that their voices continue to be heard. Far too many people are silenced so we need to make sure that we continue to make lots of noise.

Thank you to the incredible group of ONE volunteers I’ve worked with. Please continue to keep in touch and let me know how you’re doing. Thank you to the new ONE members who signed up at the U2 360° tours. You’re an inspiration.

Thank you to the unbelievable group of individuals that actually make the show happen day in and day out….My family on the road! I met some of the most talented people ever and I thank them for being my family and friends the past 10 months.

Like the band says, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.” Well I’m proud to say that ONE won’t let that happen.

Still on cloud nine

Aug 4th, 2011 3:35 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

Last Saturday the U2 360° Tour finished on a high in Moncton, Canada. As always, I was joined at the show by an amazing group of ONE volunteers who took time out of their busy lives to help sign up new members to the fight against extreme poverty. One such volunteer was Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy who kindly described her experience.

ONE Members Elise D’Arcy, Channing Love, Monika Stelzl, Mark D’Arcy and Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy

On July 30, I was lucky enough to be asked to volunteer with the ONE campaign at U2′s last show of the U2 360° Tour! My family and I have been big supporters of the ONE Campaign since the beginning, and I have had a ONE and Product (RED) awareness day once a week at my office from the beginning (my staff and I wear ONE or Product (RED) t-shirts at my dental office and educate our patients about what they stand for).

Volunteering with ONE was a dream come true for me, and I was lucky enough to be able to recruit 8 more volunteers: my husband Mark, daughter Elise and a few friends (Monika, Matt, Krista, Emma and Aidan). Even though it poured during the first few hours and a many iPads stopped working because of all the water, 25 ONE volunteers had a great day of awareness raising, and managed to sign up 2,563 new ONE members! Volunteers who lost their iPads and could not accumulate sign-ups continued to distribute leaflets and wristbands, so that even more people learned about the campaign! We hope that some of these people signed up on their own after the show!

It was important for me to share this day of volunteering with family, old friends and new ones. Most of us are big U2 fans, and this activity augmented our U2 experience: we were able to give back and help with such an important cause started by Bono, when we all feel that U2 gives so much to people.

I was able to score a lot of new sign-ups and I was one of the lucky ones who was selected to go on stage with an Amnesty International lantern during the song Walk On. What a way to end an amazing tour!

I hope to be able to volunteer again at future music events, not just U2 ones!

Still on cloud nine,

Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy

Best friends united against extreme poverty

Jul 18th, 2011 6:23 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

Earlier this month the U2 360° Tour was in Montreal, where I was lucky to meet Cindy and Sharon, two best friends from Ontario who are united in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease.

They kindly agreed to tell us about their experience at the shows and why they joined ONE.

ONE members Cindy (left) and Sarah at the U2 show in Montreal

Cindy Rose:

I am a happily married, mother of two young boys who recognizes how incredibly blessed I am in life. It’s important to me personally and actually is one of our values as a family that we give back to this world any time we have an opportunity to do so. As a huge follower and fan of U2 for over 25 years now (I can hardly believe that), I am always inspired and challenged by their music to use what I have been given to make a difference in the world. The ONE campaign has created an incredible way for people like myself to be able to use something we ALL have to make that difference – Our Voice. Whether rich or poor, young or old, ONE provides a way where people can rally together to impact the lives of people they may never meet. When you have millions of people use their voice in a unified front to say we want to see change, there is power. To volunteer for ONE and give people the opportunity to join forces with the already 2.5 million plus members of this group was an honor. It was a day that I will cherish and never forget.

Sarah Stone:

We had planned on being in Montreal for the Friday night show so when the opportunity came up to volunteer for ONE on Saturday we jumped at the chance. I have been tracking with and been a member of ONE since its beginning and therefore having the opportunity to volunteer for ONE was so exciting. I am currently a nursing student and I have a special interest in maternal and child health in the developing world and I am hoping to be able to travel and utilize my nursing skills in the future. Having the opportunity to speak with people about global health issues was a fantastic experience. Being from Ontario, I studied French all the way through primary and high school. However I hadn’t really spoken French for quite some time and I hadn’t really factored this in when I signed up to volunteer! I did my best to converse in French and people were so gracious and appreciative of the effort! I was pleasantly surprised by how much French I was able to recall and I was able to sign up 145 members that day! U2 has always been my favourite band and they have always inspired me not only with their music, but with regard to social justice issues so having the chance to volunteer for ONE, the group founded by Bono was quite literally a dream come true. Working with the other volunteers and Maura Daley (who is incredibly motivating and whose enthusiasm is contagious) made me feel like I wasn’t just at a U2 show, but like I had an important purpose and made me feel connected to a larger global community. I would highly recommend being a ONE volunteer to anyone and I hope to have the opportunity in the future to volunteer for ONE again in some capacity. It was an amazing experience I will never forget!

Two Beautiful Days In Montreal

Jul 13th, 2011 1:20 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

The U2 360° Tour made a stop in Montreal last week for two fantastic shows and ONE volunteers were able to sign up just shy of 6500 new ONE members!

ONE volunteer Chris Serratore came out for both shows and signed up over 300 new members over the two days. Here are a few words from Chris about the experience….

Well it was reminiscent of the movie field of dreams, “if you build it he will come”.  In this case it was not a corn field, but a defunct Hippodrome site, and Bono played the role of Shoeless Joe.  The U2 360° Tour took over the old Hippodrome site in Montreal – brought in the Claw – and created their own playing field, attracting over 80,000 fans each night.

Our enthusiastic team of ONE volunteers assembled just as the sound check  was underway.  Everyone listened intently as Maura Daley turned up the volume and instructed us in the school of ONE 101.  The goal, get out there into the crowds, and encourage as many people as possible to become members of ONE.  With Ipads in hand, the teams of ONE volunteers headed out and signed up more than 6000 members at the Montreal shows.

Thanks to all those in the crowd that were willing to listen us, thanks to Maura for her leadership and thanks to Shoeless Joe and the U2 team for allowing us to come out and play in their field on 2 Beautiful Days.

Making our mark in Edmonton

Jun 3rd, 2011 9:44 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

The U2 360° Tour is now well and truly rocking in North America and, as with previous legs, I’ve meet some amazing ONE members along the way. One such person is Mark McCormack who volunteered at the show in Edmonton and kindly wrote about his experience:

Wow. ONE + The U2 360° Tour. What an experience. I’ve never been through something like that before.

Let me start by saying that I am proud of our ONE Team. There is something about working towards ending the worst forms of poverty that pulls sincerely good people together. That kind of energy is what I live for and it was in abundance between the 30 of us in Edmonton. Many of us had never met before, but there was an instant feeling for me that I knew everyone on a deeper level. We knew what we had to do (I didn’t think the coordinators were going to be so clear and informative and entertaining! Special thanks to Maura for getting us all together and feeling as ONE).

The ONE team in Edmonton

Even the shy ones amongst us gave it their all. At one point there was a little bit of a break as we had engaged most of the people on the grounds. I should have taken that time to relax and eat a little because then it picked up again and didn’t slow down! My ipad skills are perfect now (we signed people up using ipads. Smart. Exactly what I expected from ONE). I informed and signed up 211 people using that baby. Here’s a tip if you want to make that level of impact: make eye contact with the people you are engaging with before you direct their attention to signing up . It creates a genuine connection where you can communicate the importance of the work of ONE.

We don’t want your money, we want your voice.

In one way I wanted to start this blog entry by gushing out all the surprises revealed to us, but I won’t ruin it for you. I’ll give you a hint: I thought we were going to keep signing people up even during the concert (I’m a workaholic)…but we did more than that…

And one volunteer was even waved at by Bono as the band drove by before the show. It’s good to know that people recognize a good ONE volunteer when they see them.

If you want to change the lives of 4 million children at risk of dying of stupid things like diarrhea, and if you want to change your own life radically for a day, I’d recommend volunteering with ONE as fast as you can. It was a blast!

Mark McCormack

ONE members in Mexico speak out

May 24th, 2011 2:58 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

During the recent U2 360° Tour shows in Mexico City, I had the opportunity to talk to some amazing ONE members about why they got involved in the fight against extreme poverty, and were volunteering at the shows to recruit more ONE members.

Watch what they had to say:

Viva Mexico!!!

May 19th, 2011 4:01 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

The U2 360° Tour travelled to Mexico last week for 3 incredible shows in Mexico City, and it’s an understatement to say that ONE Members were out in full force.

Over the course of shows, 90 ONE volunteers came out with energy and enthusiasm beyond words and signed-up over 20,000 new ONE Members. Rain, sun nor heat could keep the volunteers from getting out and recruiting so many wonderful new members to the fight against extreme poverty!

ONE members in Mexico City

ONE’s Deputy Field Director in the US, Kim Smith, travelled to Mexico to experience first-hand the beauty of ONE Members coming together as “ONE.” She was blown away by the excitement and commitment demonstrated by each ONE volunteer. She also wasn’t prepared for the lack of sleep while on the road, but she said she’d sleep when she got back to Washington DC!

Thank you again to all ONE volunteers and new members in Mexico. Your passion and enthusiasm is contagious and I look forward to working together as ONE!

Now on to the United States and Canada!

Bono meets President Calderón of Mexico

May 13th, 2011 3:52 PM UTC
By Oliver Buston

As the U2 360° Tour hits Mexico ONE’s co-founder Bono met with the Mexican President, Felipe Calderón, yesterday to ask him to take the lead in the fight against extreme poverty.

Next year is a huge opportunity for Mexico, with the country hosting the annual G20 summit, and ONE is asking for the fight against poverty to be central to the Mexican G20 agenda.

After the meeting with President Calderón Bono said:

“Next year Mexico will chair the G20, the annual get together of the most powerful leaders on the planet. Obama, Hu Jintao, Sarkozy, Merkel, Zuma, Dilma, they’ll all be flying in.  By the time they fly out, we want them to have agreed specific decisions which we know will save and transform lives in the poorest parts of the world.  As the host, President Calderón will set the agenda.  I asked him to persuade the G20 to take bold action on the fight against corruption globally, on improving healthcare, and on boosting agriculture around the world.”

It’s a big ask and Mexico has terrible problems of its own particularly the violence that is ravaging parts of the country. But my experience here in Mexico is that people stand up for what they believe in and can’t stand things they don’t – such as children dying for lack of basic medications, or for lack of food, or from corruption, which is perhaps the biggest killer of all.

So when the world comes to Mexico next year, we’re asking Mexico to change the world.

ONE Members Take South America By Storm……Literally

Apr 14th, 2011 6:54 PM UTC
By Maura Daley

Neither sun and storms could stop ONE Members in South America from coming out to the U2 360° Tour. With shows in Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo, 185 ONE volunteers dedicated their time to signing up almost 42,000 new members to the organization. Such an incredible job done by all!

ONE members in São Paulo, Brazil

It truly represents the commitment, the passion and the heartfelt dedication shown by all the ONE volunteers I met and their desire to educate their friends and neighbours on the issues of extreme poverty.

ONE member, Tomas Kepple Borba, shared his experience of volunteering at the U2 show in São Paulo. And I think this sums it up nicely….

A couple years ago I found out about ONE on the internet, became very interested in the campaign and became a member. Whenever I could, I would help campaigning through social networks mainly, and tried to get friends involved, too. A few weeks ago I got an email from Maura inviting me to be a volunteer at the U2 360° Tour concerts in São Paulo. I immediately signed up, and arranged to go to São Paulo for the second concert, even though it included getting up at 5:30 AM to catch a bus. It was an opportunity to really get involved with the cause, find out more about it and, of course, watch an amazing concert. Not only were my expectations fulfilled, but far exceeded!

When I arrived at the venue, Morumbi Stadium, I already knew it was going to be good. I soon started chatting with other volunteers, all fantastic people, and we will for sure all maintain contact! At the set time we met Maura, a really nice and enthusiastic person – really inspiring! She gave us a summary of what we would be doing and told us more about ONE, and before we knew it we were out with the mission to sign up as many new member as we could, talking to U2 fans from all over Brazil! Doing so we helped strengthen ONE, which gains more and more power to fight against extreme poverty, as it gets more members! The process involved telling people about ONE, since many had not heard about it, and inviting them to become a member and sign the petition for more investments in the new vaccines against pneumonia and diarrhoea – the two biggest causes of child death in the world.

Although most of the time we only exchanged a couple sentences with the people we signed up, it was an amazing experience to interact with so many people from all over the country (and even the world) – I think I had never talked to so many new people in such a short time! Surely an experience for life!

At the end, we were all very tired, our feet aching from standing up and walking up and down the lines, and fingers sore from typing so many names, but also very happy! To do something selfless, for a cause that was much bigger then all of us together, was an incredible and very rewarding experience – a day that all of us volunteers will remember! A sensation that is impossible to put in to words! As if the whole experience wasn´t good enough, we had the opportunity to watch one of the most amazing concerts ever!

It is very hard to put in to words the sensation of participating in something like we did, and I’m sure that all of us will keep it in our hearts forever, and now want to participate even more then before! Brazil and South America are together with ONE in the fight against extreme poverty!

I continue to remain grateful and inspired by Tomas and every person that I have met along the way in South America and I look forward to giving a voice to the voiceless with each and every one of you.

On to Mexico City and then North America!!

Thanks to everyone and much love,

Maura