Washington, DC – The ONE Campaign proudly welcomes New Madrid as Missouri’s first City of ONE. New Madrid residents led by Mayor Donnie Brown and 40,000 Missouri ONE members are combining their voices in the call to drastically reduce the number of people around the world suffering from hunger and preventable, communicable diseases like malaria and AIDS.

“Within a 30-mile radius from where I stand here in City Hall, we have almost 500 Missouri residents who are ONE members dedicated to making a difference in the world,” said New Madrid Mayor Donnie Brown. “I want to recognize those efforts and encourage others throughout the state to join their neighbors in the fight to alleviate needless suffering. 30,000 children under the age of five die each day from treatable, preventable disease. That is something many of us cannot comprehend, and it is definitely something we cannot ignore.”

ONE is a coalition of millions of Americans from all 50 states and more than 100 of the nation’s leading relief, humanitarian and advocacy organizations who want to help promote healthcare in Africa and elsewhere in the world’s poorest countries in addition to other efforts to alleviate suffering. ONE members reach across political aisles to ask elected officials and candidates to do more to lead the world in bringing hope and opportunity to the world’s poorest people.

New Madrid joins 109 cities, ten states and three colleges that have been declared Cities, States and Colleges of ONE across the country.

ONE member and New Madrid business leader Cheryl White spearheaded the proclamation signing and gathered 100 additional supporters for the announcement. White said, “I aided Hurricane Katrina victims, passed out supplies to tornado survivors and cleaned flood-ravaged communities. Nothing I have seen domestically compares to the challenges that exist in the developing world. As a mother and a person of faith, I feel compelled morally to do more to help people living in poorer countries.”

Recently, ONE launched an initiative called ONE Vote ’08, an unprecedented non-partisan campaign to save lives and secure America’s future by energizing presidential candidates to make the fight against hunger and treatable, preventable disease a key foreign policy issue in the 2008 election. Through ONE.org and work on the ground in communities, colleges and churches across the U.S., millions will be asking elected officials and candidates to raise awareness and increase efforts to fight global disease and extreme poverty.

“Missouri has a history of being a crucial political state. The issues that are important to the voters in Missouri are issues important to the presidential candidates, and we want to make sure Missouri’s ONE members are heard loud and clear,” explains ONE Spokesperson Kimberly Cadena. “Actions like Mayor Brown’s combined with the efforts of almost 40,000 ONE Missouri members will bring the fight to alleviate suffering from hunger and disease to the forefront of the political debate this campaign season.”

New Madrid is the first City of ONE to be declared in Missouri. ONE members from across the state have made requests to local and state officials asking them to follow Mayor Brown’s lead.