Colorado
As Denver’s Mile High Stadium packed in tens of thousands of U2 fans to kickoff the USA U2 360˚ tour on Saturday, 30 ONE Colorado teammates armed only with iPads recruited more than 3,400 new members.
Volunteering at a U2 show with ONE is easily one of the most exciting events I’ve experienced. This show, however, stood above the other two I’ve participated in. Over the past few months ONE Colorado has been building teams in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and elsewhere in the state.
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Nov 2nd, 2010 6:30 PM UTC
By Field
Since ONE Vote 2010 started in June, our Colorado State Organizer Nick Stevens has been on the road, meeting volunteers, talking to Senate candidates, blogging and Tweeting about his experiences and making sure that Coloradans know about ONE’s issues.
Now that Election Day is here and our ONE Vote 2010 campaign is coming to a close, we thought it would be cool for our members to see what Nick’s day-to-day life is like. For instsance, I had no idea that it involved so much driving. And I didn’t know how early he had to wake up, either. Enjoy this piece, and make sure to leave a comment and say hi to Nick. -Malaka Gharib
6:30 AM:
Rhonda the Honda (the name of my car) and I start off the day driving from Denver toward Greeley. To the west, the front range of the Rocky Mountains. To the east, the sunrise. This is the second best part of the morning (coffee is the first — which I had no time to make this morning, grrrrrrrr).
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Oct 25th, 2010 1:03 PM UTC
By Field
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
Colorado co-chair Governor Bill Ritter with ONE members
ONE member Rachael Stamps with Senator Bennet’s wife Susan Daggett
With a week and a day until election day, candidates are doing whatever they can to campaign around the state of Colorado. Last week, President Clinton campaigned for Senator Bennet in Denver, and on Saturday, the senator’s wife, Susan Daggett, and Governor Bill Ritter campaigned for Bennet in Golden, Colorado.
In a small coffee shop nestled next to the mountains, the governor and Mrs. Daggett spoke to a room full of voters. Afterward, ONE member Rachael Stamps and I spoke to Governor Ritter and thanked him for his support as a co-chair for the state during ONE Vote ’08. Mr. Ritter reiterated his support of ONE and talked about his prior work in Zambia on nutrition issues.
We also spoke with Mrs. Daggett, who wore the ONE band last Monday at the rally with President Clinton. She was happy to see ONE again and we asked her to encourage her husband to champion global poverty issues in the Senate. She gladly wore the ONE band again and posed for a picture.
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Colorado members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Nick Stevens, ONE Vote 2010 state organizer, Colorado
Oct 22nd, 2010 12:18 PM UTC
By Field
Oct 21st, 2010 11:59 AM UTC
By Field
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
A coalition of six Denver churches came together on Saturday to host a screening of “The Lazarus Effect,” as well as a panel of experts from Compassion International, the Infectious Diseases Institute, Bloom Church and ONE.
The event was held in the beautiful building of First Baptist Church, directly across the street from the Colorado State Capitol Building. After the Lazarus Effect screening, the panel was scheduled to speak for 30 minutes, aided by questions from audience and me. What took place was a 1-hour-and-15-minute dialogue between the audience and the panelists. Some of the themes included the importance of funding programs like the Global Fund and PEPFAR, and also ensuring that the governments receiving such funds are accountable and efficient. Sidney Muisyo, Vice President for the Africa region at Compassion International, talked about Compassion’s Leadership Development Program, which is addressing governance issues by providing students of strong character with a college education that will enable them to positively influence the direction of their countries.
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ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
While on the ONE Vote campaign trail, I’ve learned that there is nothing more important than positioning yourself strategically on the rope line so you can catch a candidate as they come offstage. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple because being one of the few individuals that actually shakes the candidate’s hand in a room full of thousands of people is statistically speaking, well, difficult. I encountered one such scenario last night at a rally for Senator Bennet featuring former President Bill Clinton.
There were 12 ONE members at the rally, so it was easy for us to split up and cover multiple parts of the rope line. Jeb Barrett and his sister were the first ONE members to grab Senator Bennet and President Clinton as they came off stage. Jeb gave both of them ONE bands before they continued down the line shaking hands. In the middle, ONE volunteer CDL Valerie Bobalek thanked President Clinton for his recovery work in Haiti following the earthquake. “It just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?” he said.
Finally, as Senator Bennet began to head backstage, ONE members Ismay and Kyrzia Parker grabbed him for one last picture. They also banded his wife Susan Daggett and his daughter. Ismay asked the Senator to continue to support ONE.org and the fight against poverty. Senator Bennet complimented ONE and our efforts as he made his way off stage.
President Clinton, who had pointed directly at Kyrzia’s ONE sign and gave two thumbs up as he went onstage, gladly posed for a picture with her on his way backstage. In his speech, President Clinton talked about the importance of cheap AIDS drugs for developing nations and his experiences in places where people live on less than $2 each day.
I was proud to watch ONE volunteers as their passion drove them through a crowd of thousands of people to the front of the rope lines in an effort to advocate for the world’s poorest people. They succeeded not once, but three times.
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Colorado members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Nick Stevens, ONE Vote 2010 State Organizer, Colorado
Oct 14th, 2010 1:00 PM UTC
By Field
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck held a tour stop in Broomfield, Colorado yesterday and ONE member Susan Eberling and her daughter were there to meet him. It’s the third time this week that ONE members have spoken to Ken about how fighting poverty and strengthening national security go hand in hand. The message is simple: It’s about saving lives, but it’s also about promoting goodwill and stability in poor countries.
Many thanks to Ken Buck! At each stop he has welcomed ONE members and posed for pictures with them. On Tuesday, ONE members even got to meet Senator John Thune at a Ken Buck rally.
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Colorado members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Nick Stevens, ONE Vote 2010 state organizer, Colorado
