ONE members around the country are hitting the presidential campaign trail, engaging and educating the candidates on the fight against extreme poverty for ONE Vote.
A cupcake shop might seem like a weird location to host an event about extreme poverty in the poorest parts of the world, but the truth is, we have so much to celebrate.
My 3-year-old son calls all cakes “happy cakes,” and I think he’s right. We all enjoy “happy cakes” for all kinds of happy celebrations: birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, reunions, retirement and many more.
So why not have cake to celebrate all the amazing successes we have seen in global development in the last 50 years?! It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the challenges we face in fighting extreme poverty but it’s exciting and empowering when you look back at all the remarkable things we have already done.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Child deaths in the developing world have dropped 50 percent in the last 50 years
- 99 percent of polio has been eradicated off the face of the earth
- 7 million Africans are on life saving HIV medicine
- 49 million more kids are in school in sub-Saharan Africa
These are only a few of the many amazing successes we have all been a part of already. If this isn’t a reason to celebrate, I don’t know what is.
Besides all the cupcakes, there was another awesome reason for this event — we were talking about what’s next, specifically what’s next in Nebraska.
Yesterday, we officially kicked off the Nebraska ONE Vote 2012 Campaign and announced our bipartisan state advisory committee, a group of 14 well-respected local leaders willing to come together and support our grassroots efforts here in the cornhusker state, and many more– see the full list here.
The Nebraska Advisory Committee includes Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, Former Lt. Gov. Kim Robak, State Senator Tony Fulton, State Senator Heath Mello, Mark Fahleson, Chairman NE GOP, Jim Rogers, ED NDP and many more.
One of our advisory committee members was also out guest speaker at the event. John O’Keefe is a theology professor at Creighton University as well as a filmmaker. He shared a few thoughts and stories from his many travels including a very recent trip to Uganda.
We were also honored to have a team of professionals from the African Culture Connection join us to end our evening with an amazing performance of traditional African dance & drumming. Some attendees, including myself, even got up to join in the fun!
What a great evening with some amazing people! Now let’s get to work Nebraska!
