(RED) U

Lokahi is proud to be working again with our partners at (RED). We are very excited to announce the launch of '(RED) U', a college internship and outreach program that we'll be involved with throughout next year. If you are going to be in school during the 08/09 academic year and are interested in applying, all of the info you need is below.



We look forward to reviewing applications and hearing about all the ways you can turn your campus (RED) next year!

More info on the (RED) U program can be found here.

PS: as always, we'll be also looking for volunteers to help us out on campuses and at other events throughout the year!

Make your campus (RED) next year

In our first year and half, (RED) has raised over 100 million dollars for the Global Fund. This amount could fund lifesaving antiretroviral treatment for more than 630,000 Africans for a year. The potential in what we are doing is huge. And the need is great.

Every day, 4,400 Africans die of AIDS. Of the 33.2 million people infected with AIDS globally, 68% are living in sub-Sahara Africa. More people die of AIDS in Africa every year than in all the other countries in the world combined.

What’s more tragic is that millions are dying unnecessarily. AIDS is a preventable, treatable disease. Two little pills that cost just 40 cents a day can keep people with HIV/AIDS alive.

In Africa, AIDS is a real emergency. We need a radically new approach to help eliminate it. We want you to help us do it.

(RED) is going to be on campuses across the country next year, and we want your help. How can you turn your campus (RED)? We’re looking for unique ideas – the five best concepts will be rewarded with a “(RED) Ambassador” position for the 08/09 school year, a chance to execute your proposal with our help, an opportunity to bring (RED) to your campus community in a meaningful way, and possibly even a trip to Africa.

(RED) U Student Ambassador Program

(RED) is excited to announce the launch of our (RED) Ambassador program for the 08/09 school year. The program is open to college students from any institution in the United States. Ambassadors will be responsible for turning their campus (RED): educating about the crisis of AIDS in Africa, promoting (RED) products and the role they play in fighting this epidemic, building an understanding of what (RED) is and how the (RED) model works, raising awareness about the Global Fund, and getting as many people as possible in your community to choose (RED) when shopping.

We’ll pick five students from campuses across the country later this spring to be our very first (RED) Ambassadors for the 08 – 09 school year. In this year-long commitment, (RED) Ambassadors will be serving in an internship role, getting a ton of hands-on experience with things like planning campaigns, organizing, marketing, event planning, and training volunteers. You’ll receive training and support from the (RED) team who will be your guide throughout the school year. Your training will kick off with a (RED) U weekend in June where you’ll meet some of the (RED) team, learn about our product partners, learn the ins and outs of the (RED) model, the Global Fund and the issues around the AIDS emergency in Africa, and develop a marketing and outreach plan for your campus. This is a great opportunity to expand your leadership skills and utilize your creativity and knowledge of your campus community in an effort to eliminate the AIDS emergency in Africa.




WANT TO MAKE YOUR CAMPUS (RED) AND BE ONE OF OUR FIRST (RED) AMBASSADORS?

Download the Campus Toolkit by clicking this link or going to the joinred.com homepage.

Then, check out the Application Instructions for information on how to apply to be a (RED) Ambassador. Be sure to also read the Guidelines, (RED) Talking Points and FAQ’s for all of the specifics that you’ll need for your application.

Turning Vail (RED)

Joining the (RED) community
Originally uploaded by Brande Jackson

We just got back from a very cold week in Vail! Brian and I were in town for the Vail Film Festival, talking to lots of people about (RED) and promoting the (RED) Vision Showcase. You can check out more photos here.

We’ll have some more updates coming pretty soon – summer plans are starting to firm up and we are excited about the months to come. Don’t forget, as always, that we’ll be needed lots of volunteers to join us, if you haven’t already, be sure to email
us if you’d like to be on our volunteer list.

Volunteering and internships

Hi everyone!

Winter is traditionally our slow time, so sorry for the lack of updates! We've mostly been focused on our after school program and making plans for the year ahead for the past few months.

Wanted to post a quick update though, as we've been getting a TON of emails lately regarding to volunteer opps and internships - thanks to everyone who has contacted us, we really appreciate your support and interest in what we do, and we have added you all to our volunteer/email list.

We are still figuring out our year ahead, so stay tuned for updates, we should have some soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in being added to our volunteer list, check out our Idealist.org listing that explains how it all works:

http://www.idealist.org/en/volunteeropportunity/144916-161

You can also email us to be added as well.

As far as internships go, we won't know for a few months yet if we'll have any positions available this summer, but we are very much so hoping we can offer a few spots, as they are a great way for young campaigners to learn about grassroots organizing. Again, keep checking back here - we'll post announcements both here and on our myspace page, and will be sending out emails as well.

Thanks again for the support - feel free to hit us up with any questions, ideas et all!

Fall Updates...

Fall is typically our slow time as far as tours go, so we shift our attention to our educational programs. Lokahi has been involved with the after school communities in Pasadena and Los Angeles since 2002. We currently have a very cool program running in the Pasadena Unified School District, teaching our students about community service, social justice and global awareness via an arts based, project learning curriculum. Our students have been busy writing letters for Amnesty International and completing some very cool art projects over the past few weeks – you can read up more about what they are doing here, and be sure to check out some photos of our students in action.

More updates will come soon, we promise – we have some big stuff planned for 08 both with our in school educational programs and our touring work!

Common wrap up...

Common volunter crew Virgina Beach
Originally uploaded by Brande Jackson

Our team just wrapped up a whirlwind tour with Common that took us through the Midwest, southeast and northeast. In the process, we got thousands of fans educated and informed about Converse (RED) and the steps they could take to fight AIDS in Africa.

As always, we had amazing volunteers joining us along the way. We had Jennifer, a long time ONE Campaign supporter eager to also join us with (RED), help us in Orlando. In Virginia Beach, we were joined by what I coined my ‘Geico’ team – Andrew, Jamie and Shanaya, co-workers who knew each other from their job at, go figure, Geico Insurance. They were very into what (RED) was doing, and were a stellar volunteer crew, giving us one of our best nights on the tour! Jennifer and Mollie in Charlotte, whom volunteer for both (RED) and ONE, also helped us on another big night as well.

We were constantly amazed at how many people we met during this tour whom had been to and done work directly in Africa. I met a Berkelee Music student at the Worcester show who had just returned from Kenya, where she was doing music therapy with youth there. We met social workers in New York who had just returned from Nigeria. We met even more people who were in the process of planning volunteer trips – it was pretty incredible to meet so many people every night whom were doing amazing things day in and day out to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa.

A big thanks to Common and his team for bringing us out – we had a blast and can’t wait to catch up with the tour again next time it comes through the US! In the meantime, be sure to check out www.makeminered.com – design your own Chuck Taylor’s, and fight AIDS in Africa as well!

-Brande

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Dave Matthews Band Wrap Up!

DMB Volunteer Crew in Mountain View, CA
Originally uploaded by Brande Jackson

It’s hard to believe that we already just wrapped a very successful third summer on tour with the Dave Matthews Band! Here’s a recap of our busy final week on the road:

Our team rolled in to Phoenix ready to work! One of our volunteers, Judy, joined us after having a root canal earlier in the morning – we think she wins the ‘hard core’ volunteer award of the summer! She has traveled to Kenya in the past and explained to us the level of crisis that people face there that she saw firsthand. She was very up to date on issues, and also works for Motorola, so is on the frontlines of the (RED) effort! Hassan joined us after only a few hours of sleep, and still had to go into work this evening at midnight. This didn't stop him from staying until the very end, even working the concourse while we were breaking down the booth! Anita and her husband John drove over an hour to volunteer with us, and were also very excited to be part of the campaign. We had a shorter night than normal in Phoenix, as we had to break down early to make it to California the next day, but that didn’t stop us from getting thousands of Dave fans involved with ONE and (RED)!

The next day we were in Orange County and were joined by another great team of volunteers. We were joined by Veronica, Debbie, Julie and my friend Kris, all of whom had come from all over Southern California to volunteer for the first time. Our team that night consisted of an ER nurse, a financial planner, an emergency dispatcher and entertainment lawyer – just goes to show you that our volunteer base is quite diverse! We had a lot of fun – Irvine is always one of our favorite shows.

We saw more people with (RED) gear than we normally do (and we normally see a lot of it!) including the very first ‘(RED) tattoos’ of the tour! We talked to lots of people who are active with (RED) and ONE in Southern California, and got tons of people new to the work involved as well.

Next up was San Diego. During set up, a certain bass player nearly wiped out on his skateboard in front of our booth, but luckily tragedy was averted and the show still went on! Our volunteers came out in full force: Thomas joined us for the second time in a week – he drove all the way to downtown LA from Camp Pendleton, where he is a Marine, to help at Global Mala the weekend before, so I had invited him to come back out to something that was at least a little closer. We were also joined by Lynniece and Cynthia, first time volunteers who did a great job. A big thanks to that team for staying around to help us break down at the end of the night as well!




We were in the bay area the next day for the Mountain View show. We really like doing shows at the venue there – it has a great layout, the staff is super nice and it’s always cooler than other summer shows. We had a massive team join us tonight – 9 great volunteers that helped us get hundreds of DMB fans involved in making poverty history and fighting AIDS in Africa. Volunteer veteran Lori joined us again – it’s always great to see her! – along with Jamie, Dave, Raquel, Jean, Ginny, Deepika, Melanie and Trina. They were a super fun team to work with, asking great questions during our training and hitting the ground with full force once the doors opened. In particular, we were amazed by Melanie and Trina. They both had reported to work at 4:45am that day, and in fact barely made it to volunteer because they also finished work late, but they were somehow going full force ALL NIGHT – even staying long after the show ended, selling white ONE bands like crazy people. We discovered that their secret lie in the fact that they work for Starbucks and were sort of permanently caffeinated and peppy, which worked out great for us! They even helped us load our stuff out at the end of the night!

Los Angeles was were we finished up the tour. We had two great nights at the Hollywood Bowl, working with amazing volunteers yet again. We were joined by Drea, Megan, Carol and her son Chris on the first night, and on Sunday Beth, who had volunteered with us at a U2 show in Hawaii last year, joined us, along with Walt, Rachel, Jacqueline, Brooke and Amanda. Our crews did a great job at ending the tour on a high note, talking to thousands of fans over the two nights we were in town.

A big thanks to all of the volunteers and the DMB crew for their help this summer. Their hard work and support got tens of thousands of Dave fans involved with ONE and (RED). Keep on the lookout for more events soon!

-Brande

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