It's Been A While, But We've Been Busy

So we are done. We just submitted our entry for the final stage of the ONE Campaign Campus Challenge.


ONE Day at Western Kentucky University from Western Kentucky University on Vimeo.

I just want to take a second and thank everybody that has helped over the past few weeks, especially our volunteers who just came out of the woodwork and gave it their all. We couldn't have done it without you guys.

--Doug Tate
--WKU ONE Campaign Campus Challenge Action Team

Exciting news from HQ

Here's an email we received this week, since we are No. 4 in the nation!!!!!!

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Since the start of the semester the Campus Challenge has been a flurry of activity as the best poverty fighters around the country jockeyed for position for this moment: the chance to be in the Top 10.

Now that all the points have been counted, here are the Top 10 colleges and universities in the United States, ranked by their efforts advocating to end extreme poverty:

1. Sacred Heart University
2. University of Nevada, Las Vegas
3. Brandeis University
4. Western Kentucky University
5. Princeton University
6. Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio
7. Kansas State University
8. George Washington University
9. Hofstra University
10. Campbellsville University

And now the competition gets truly intense. Each of these schools will receive a $1,000 grant and support from ONE staff to create their own poverty advocacy campaign. The competition remains open to all campuses though. We invite all of you to create your very own poverty fighting initiative.

In late March, all ONE members and a panel of experts will pick a winner from the top 10 schools' projects along with one "wild card" project from any other university that submits an entry.

And though the competition is narrowing to the schools with hundreds (or thousands) of members, it is important to remember that there will always be simple everyday actions that we can all take to help make poverty history.

For example, right now you can tell your friends to sign the petition asking the Presidential candidates to visit Africa in their first term in office:
http://onevote08.org/onevote08/ontherecord/visitafrica/?id=246-3695625-Shnn6G&t=1

In the last five months, tens of thousands of students have taken hundreds of thousands of individual actions against poverty. Individually, our actions might not seem like much, but together we have moved Congress with our passion, slammed the IMF with emails, and convinced the presidential candidates to make unprecedented commitments to fight extreme poverty.

Thank you for everything that you have given to this fight so far. Let's keep it up.

Erin, Weldon, and the ONE Campus Challenge Team

faith in ONE

As I became more and more involved with the ONE campaign, I became interested in how often the church is not involved with the social justices in the world. It is seen so often in American society, that the people involved with non-profit organizations, such as the ONE campaign are not affiliated with any religion. It struck me as odd, since in the Christianity religion, Christians are called to help the poor and oppressed. This may be their beliefs, but it seems that their actions are never seen or even heard of.

To be able to counteract this typical view, we decided to take a visit to a local church and get them involved with the ONE campaign. We went to Hillvue Heights Church and spread the word of the ONE campaign to the church's youth group on a Wednesday night. Our night turned out to be a success, because so many students were more that willing to hear and sign-up for the ONE campaign. Many of these students happened to be freshmen, and it was nothing short of amazing to see these students wanting to become so involved with ONE.

Maybe in the end this movement to get involved with local churches can disprove the thoughts of so many Americans that Christians don't care. Maybe we can show that anybody can make a difference in the world today.

Peace and Love.

Just kick 'em all the way to Timbuktu

Hey Everybody!

The OCC is wrapping up, but here's another way for you to support Western in our fight for the Top 10.

President Bush is heading to Africa soon, and the ONE Campaign wants whomever is our next leader to do the same. How can you help? Sign the Petition.

http://onevote08.org/ontherecord/visitafrica/

Sign the petition to make our leader accountable and knowledgeable.

Thanks

--Doug Tate

Oh Love, that will not let me go

Greetings. I hope yall's Valentine's Day has been full of love and free of materialism.

I realize this is very cliche to talk about, but considering this worldly holiday perpetuated by greeting card companies and women who need to feel wanted more than anything, I'd like to take some time to share with yall some thoughts I've been having today...

Now first of all, I'm not hating on Valentine's Day. I try my hardest not to hate on anything. I realize that loved ones are important, but I feel like our society's definition of love is one that often is conditional. We will only "love" those who look like us, think like us, or even have the same skin color as us. But what would our world look like if our love was something bigger, something free of condition? My best friend Kristen Houser, a dedicated laborer to the ONE campaign and freedom in general, was talking the other day about having a broad love. It struck me as a very simple but brilliant concept... This is something I feel like our society is in desperate need of - a love that does not consider a person's status, region of the world, or physical appearance... but rather, one that considers simply a person's humanity.

This is where the ONE campaign comes in. I feel very strongly about spreading this message, that while drive our SUV's to McDonald's for a quarter-pounder, thousands of children are starving around the world. People need to understand the reality of other countries' hunger. The ONE campaign has already made some great strides - and these are not just world leaders out there creating change; we as students are making progress.

BUT, I think the most important thing to remember as we work for justice is the reason behind it all, and that is to have/spread a broad love for the world, for our fellow man. I know that a lot of times, we can get caught up in numbers and points and reaching goals and even looking like a cool activist kid... but all this is vanity if it is not rooted in love. So I encourage all of you who are working very hard in this fight, to take a second and remember on this Valentine's Day: we work to love, not to gain anything.

-Meredith Wadlington

ONE Dream Realized

It was three years ago that I first heard about the ONE Campaign and decided to hop onboard our generation's movement to wipe out poverty from our futures. Since then I've learned a lot. I've had successes as well as failures. I've met some really cool people trying to save the world and I've had an amazing time in the process.

Yet for the past two years, volunteering in high school and in a rural community in Mid-Missouri was not easy. No one seemed to want to acknowledge the fact that a child dies every three seconds simply because they're too poor to live and it was nearly impossible trying to find some fellow concerned citizens to step up to the challenge.

But this last year all of that has changed. I have met and befriended some of the most amazing people on this planet who have demonstrated their commitment and ability to making a better safer world for all of us.

This commitment was proven this past weekend when I was absent from most of WKU's ONE Community Outreach program and yet all my best friends and fellow world-changers from here in the Commonwealth stepped up their game to get the word out to the community about fighting global poverty and disease. The result was WKU winning this week's challenge as well as recruiting more members to ONE this week than any other campus in the nation, for the second week in a row!!!!

This awesomeness raised WKU up to 4th place in the nation, beating out Princeton and George Washington!

But more importantly, this weekend proved to me not only that I now have some of the most amazing friends anyONE could ever ask for, but more importantly this weekend gave me hope. Hope that ONE day a child will no longer die simply due to a mosquito bite. Hope that ONE day we will MAKE POVERTY HISTORY...

Thanks to all my amazing friends who did EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE this weekend and to all the rest of you who are reading this now, if you haven't already done so, join ONE at one.org/campus and get onboard our generations movement to bring justice to the voiceless all across the world.

As ONE,
Matt Vaughan

Visibility Week Slide Show

Our chapter of the ONE campaign has spent the last few months blanketing the campus with information. But until recently hadn't become involved with our local community.
This week, that changed. We began reaching out and educating our city in matters of global poverty, and what they can do to help.
So, our entry for this weekly challenge is a photo slideshow of WKU students educating and engaging our beloved Bowling Green, KY.