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!
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Common wrap up...
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
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
common
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
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
common
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Dave Matthews Band Wrap Up!
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
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
common
one campaign
dave matthews band
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
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
common
one campaign
dave matthews band
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
A busy weekend...
The (RED)/ONE teams were out in full force across the country this past weekend!
We met back up with Common, talking to fans at his shows in Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Common’s tour is proving to be a really amazing experience – we talk to countless fans that are really excited to get behind the idea of what (RED) is working to do. Our field team commented that they couldn’t believe how many people they met over the two nights this weekend that had been to or were going to Africa, doing projects with other ngo’s and even on their own. As always, the Common team was super supportive and helpful – we are really excited about the remaining dates of the tour!
Our Dave Matthews Band team was also hard at work, taking on Texas this weekend. We got thousands of fans involved with ONE and (RED) while in Houston and Dallas, working, as always, with a bunch of very cool volunteers to make it happen. We had a super crew join us in Houston, including long time ONE volunteers Tracey, Al and Lisa, as well as new volunteers Kelly, Sarah, Luke, Cindy, Fernando and Katie. The team did great – hitting the ground running, so to speak, after going through their training! The next night in Dallas proved to be even more successful – we had a great location right around the curve of the west concourse. Somehow, all of our volunteers arrived within 5 minutes of each other – always a good sign of how the evening would go! Joining us to help in Dallas was Kelly, a fifth grade teacher, Robert, Elliot, and Eliza, all students, and Melody and Cheryl, long time friends and advocates of the ONE Campaign and (RED). Since all of our volunteers were familiar with the campaign, training was a snap, and we all had a little time to relax before the doors were open to the fans. Once the venue was open, our crew was all business, everyone staying out the entire time without rest, only returning to the booth to get more sign up sheets. The booth was in full swing as well thanks to a great location, and many new people as well as several old friends of the campaign stopped by to show their support. By the end of the night, our high energy crew was getting pretty tired, but this didn't stop them from staying till the very end – all of our volunteers stayed for the full effort! Great crew, super attitude, and just and all around fun team!
We also were getting our inner yogi on with Global Mala in Los Angeles. (RED) took part in this first time event, recruiting lots of new support for our work and spreading the word in a big way how much (RED) had raised for the Global Fund. Attendees were very impressed to learn that (RED) had raised 45 million in our first year of existence – and they were very interested in checking out the (RED) products we had on display so they could continue to contribute! We were joined by a great team of volunteers here as well – Drea, Jenny, Melodie and Maria came from all across LA and Orange Counties to join us, and Thomas even came up all the way from Oceanside, where he lives with his fellow Marine’s, to help out! Sunday was a bit slower, but we still had fun hanging out with Lena, a UCLA student, and Carol and Roquel, hospice workers that joined us for the afternoon.
All things combined, it was a big weekend for (RED) and ONE, as we continued to work to build support across the nation! Watch for updates as the Dave tour comes to California and Common hits the east coast next week!
-Brande
product red
converse
make mine red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
texas
common
global mala
one campaign
dave matthews band
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Fighting AIDS in Africa with Common!
We were really excited to get our partnership with Common launched this past weekend! Common is the spokesman for Converse (RED) – lending his voice and name to help fight AIDS in Africa. Though this tour is a short one, we are very eager to get to talk to his fans all across the country about how they can join us in this fight against AIDS and poverty. Check out the tour dates on Common’s website and myspace page – be sure to stop by and say hi if you are at any of the shows!
We kicked off our outreach project in Dallas this past Saturday night. We were lucky to have two great volunteers join us. Jimmy is a self described ‘huge U2 fan’ that first learned about (RED) through his interest in the band. Amy has been involved with poverty and AIDS related work for a while now – she also volunteers at a local elementary school, helping underserved youth, when not going to school full time. They both showed up sporting (RED) Chuck Taylor’s as well – I couldn’t ask for more! After helping me finish setting up, we went through a training, and before I knew it, my team had placed themselves right at the entrance and were catching nearly every other person walking in! On Sunday night in Austin, I was joined by Cristina, a UT bio-medical engineering student. She is studying ways to help curb the AIDS epidemic globally, and has been involved with the ONE Campaign for some time now. Like my crew on Saturday, she too jumped right in and started getting lots and lots of people signed up and informed.
I was really impressed by how knowledgeable and supportive Common fans were with the campaign – I met several Gap employees, in fact, that told me how much they liked (RED) and what it was doing. As always, we also talked to social workers, people who had volunteered in Africa and students studying poverty related issues – I’m always amazed at the diverse experiences the fans we talk to have had. Plus, everyone was very eager to play around with the two computers we have set up and opened to www.makeminered.com - I saw some very impressive shoe designs during my weekend in Texas, and likewise, fans were excited to know that by designing and ordering their shoes and ‘making them red’, they could also contribute to the Global Fund.
A big thanks to our volunteers and the Common crew for being so helpful and supportive during our first few days. Our next shows are in Minneapolis and Milwaukee – watch for more info soon!
product red
converse
make mine red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
texas
common
We kicked off our outreach project in Dallas this past Saturday night. We were lucky to have two great volunteers join us. Jimmy is a self described ‘huge U2 fan’ that first learned about (RED) through his interest in the band. Amy has been involved with poverty and AIDS related work for a while now – she also volunteers at a local elementary school, helping underserved youth, when not going to school full time. They both showed up sporting (RED) Chuck Taylor’s as well – I couldn’t ask for more! After helping me finish setting up, we went through a training, and before I knew it, my team had placed themselves right at the entrance and were catching nearly every other person walking in! On Sunday night in Austin, I was joined by Cristina, a UT bio-medical engineering student. She is studying ways to help curb the AIDS epidemic globally, and has been involved with the ONE Campaign for some time now. Like my crew on Saturday, she too jumped right in and started getting lots and lots of people signed up and informed.
I was really impressed by how knowledgeable and supportive Common fans were with the campaign – I met several Gap employees, in fact, that told me how much they liked (RED) and what it was doing. As always, we also talked to social workers, people who had volunteered in Africa and students studying poverty related issues – I’m always amazed at the diverse experiences the fans we talk to have had. Plus, everyone was very eager to play around with the two computers we have set up and opened to www.makeminered.com - I saw some very impressive shoe designs during my weekend in Texas, and likewise, fans were excited to know that by designing and ordering their shoes and ‘making them red’, they could also contribute to the Global Fund.
A big thanks to our volunteers and the Common crew for being so helpful and supportive during our first few days. Our next shows are in Minneapolis and Milwaukee – watch for more info soon!
product red
converse
make mine red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
texas
common
Florida: part two
We continued our trek through Florida this past weekend, working to spread the word about ONE and (RED) to Dave Matthews Band fans in West Palm Beach. The shows were a big success – lots of people got signed up and involved, our volunteers were great, and we even were spared the worst of Florida’s rain – especially in comparison to the night we had in Tampa!
Friday night we had yet another great crew of volunteers join us. Jeanette and Mariel hit the lawn with great success, while Brenda and Maika canvassed the concourse and helped out at the booth. Our second group of volunteers arrived, and once they received their training we were at full force! The constant flood of eager fans kept us busy right up until show time, and by the time the music started we were all ready for a break as we regrouped for the second half. Once the band was done, the flood of fans reversed its path as 18,000 people headed for the gates. Our second group of volunteers, Bo, David, Wendy, Jordan, and Eric all put forth a great final effort working the gates and catching many of the exiting fans, while Jeanette and Mariel headed up the concourse and yard area, and Maika helped pull fans into the booth. Great crew, accessible venue, and no rain: all in all, a very good night!
Saturday got off to a bit of a mild start – the crowd seemed to trickle in at a little slower rate than last night, and this gave us a chance to walk the lawn a little more before the show. We had three volunteers, as opposed to our usual average of seven or eight, and this made things a little more difficult, but our team was definitely on top of the game! Nancy came out full force, returning to the table twice sporting full sheets on her clipboard, and Tricia and Dinorah weren't the least bit intimidated by the mass of party people crowded on the lawn. The booth saw its fair share of curious and interested fans, and lots and lots of fans went home with new ONE shirts. What are the odds that there would be five fans that would fit the extra small women’s EDUN shirts in the same day? We also had a little lizard hanging out on our table all night – this IS Florida – we tried to convince fans it was Dave’s pet lizard and we were watching it for him, but people weren’t believing us.
All in all, we had a very eventful week in Florida – thanks to our stellar crew of volunteers who joined us! We’re heading off to Texas next, more updates soon…
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
florida
dave matthews band
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Oh Florida...
We’ve had an adventurous few days here in Florida so far. I don’t think I’ve ever come to Florida for shows and came back with a report that is was ‘normal’ or ‘kinda boring’. SOMETHING of note always seems to happen in the Sunshine State, and typically that something will involve bugs, heat and/or bad weather.
Gainesville got off to a bit of a rocky start. The venue was much smaller than anyone had anticipated – we were able to have a table inside, but we couldn’t float around like we normally do. So that meant our table was in, but our volunteers were out. It ended up working fine though – we had an amazing team join us, and they pretty much talked to about every other person that was coming to the show!
Our team of volunteers included Tricia, who had volunteered with us at the Daytona 500 NASCAR event last year, Brady, a freshman at UF who has been involved with ONE for a while but was volunteering for the first time, and Christine and Leah, UF students who definitely figured out the best way to get their fellow students on board with our work! We also had Holly and Jaimie joining us, and Yee, a UF law student who was technically suppose to be volunteering for another non-profit, but that non-profit couldn’t set up and since she was already there, she joined us! They all did AMAZING – this was seriously one of the best volunteer crews we’ve worked with all year long! I love nights like the night we had in Gainesville – the odds were stacked against us, the day started off with everything going wrong, but our volunteers all showed, we had a great training, and they worked harder than we could have ever asked and even looked like they were having a good time doing it!
We hit Tampa the next afternoon, ready to work, and deal with Florida’s never ending late summer rain. We were expecting a typical light summer Florida shower while we set up. We were able to set up with no problems, we went through another great volunteer training with no problems, and we got to work with no problems, but then our luck turned. Our light summer shower turned out to be a storm of what seemed like apocalyptic proportions. Before we knew it our tents had turned into a shelter for a bunch of very wet DMB fans and our bewildered volunteer crew. Our team in Tampa included Joe, a first time volunteer who came to the show with his friend Katherina, Penny who was a first time volunteer, Missy and Dave, a couple from upstate New York who are going to school in Florida, and Sam and Kelley, who get bonus points for offering to come volunteer with about 12 hours notice! The team did great, getting hundreds of Dave fans signed up before the rain cut our night short. Loading out wasn’t much fun, but so it goes!
My team will be in West Palm Beach this weekend, and I’m heading off to start the Common Tour in Dallas – watch for more updates soon!
-Brande
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
florida
dave matthews band
Gainesville got off to a bit of a rocky start. The venue was much smaller than anyone had anticipated – we were able to have a table inside, but we couldn’t float around like we normally do. So that meant our table was in, but our volunteers were out. It ended up working fine though – we had an amazing team join us, and they pretty much talked to about every other person that was coming to the show!
Our team of volunteers included Tricia, who had volunteered with us at the Daytona 500 NASCAR event last year, Brady, a freshman at UF who has been involved with ONE for a while but was volunteering for the first time, and Christine and Leah, UF students who definitely figured out the best way to get their fellow students on board with our work! We also had Holly and Jaimie joining us, and Yee, a UF law student who was technically suppose to be volunteering for another non-profit, but that non-profit couldn’t set up and since she was already there, she joined us! They all did AMAZING – this was seriously one of the best volunteer crews we’ve worked with all year long! I love nights like the night we had in Gainesville – the odds were stacked against us, the day started off with everything going wrong, but our volunteers all showed, we had a great training, and they worked harder than we could have ever asked and even looked like they were having a good time doing it!
We hit Tampa the next afternoon, ready to work, and deal with Florida’s never ending late summer rain. We were expecting a typical light summer Florida shower while we set up. We were able to set up with no problems, we went through another great volunteer training with no problems, and we got to work with no problems, but then our luck turned. Our light summer shower turned out to be a storm of what seemed like apocalyptic proportions. Before we knew it our tents had turned into a shelter for a bunch of very wet DMB fans and our bewildered volunteer crew. Our team in Tampa included Joe, a first time volunteer who came to the show with his friend Katherina, Penny who was a first time volunteer, Missy and Dave, a couple from upstate New York who are going to school in Florida, and Sam and Kelley, who get bonus points for offering to come volunteer with about 12 hours notice! The team did great, getting hundreds of Dave fans signed up before the rain cut our night short. Loading out wasn’t much fun, but so it goes!
My team will be in West Palm Beach this weekend, and I’m heading off to start the Common Tour in Dallas – watch for more updates soon!
-Brande
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
florida
dave matthews band
Sunday, September 09, 2007
ONE and (RED) in Piedmont Park!
ONE and (RED) got to take part in the massive – and some fans are saying historic! – show at Piedmont Park this past weekend. We hit up Atlanta with clipboards, white bands and stickers in hand! The show this weekend was unusual – 60,000 people in Piedmont Park and the show was a double bill with the Allman Brothers Band – pretty chaotic, but also a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have much of a volunteer turn out this weekend – I think people were freaked out by the size of the show and the fact that you had to take public transport and couldn’t park. Because of that, we were extra excited to have Elaine from Birmingham join us – she was already coming to the show and volunteered to spend several hours of her time with us behind the booth. We were really grateful for her help – we were pretty busy back there, and my touring partner Joe was spending most of his time floating around getting sign ups, so I definitely needed the help! I hadn’t seen Elaine since she volunteered with us at one of the U2 shows back in the fall of 2005, so it was great to get to hang out and catch up. She is one of our super volunteers – always doing amazing work for ONE and (RED) in her community in Alabama, having been involved with the campaign since its launch three years ago – we bonded over being among the small group of old timers that have been around since 2004! She also was able to fully explain to me exactly what ‘croakies’ were, and how they connected to certain styles of DMB fans…
All night long we got to meet fan after fan that was excited to be involved with ONE and (RED). In the process of talking to thousands of people, I somehow managed to become the best friend to a group of about eight 7th grade boys. They kept coming back to the table - first they were just hanging out, wanting to know ‘what can I get for free?!?!?!’, giving me flashbacks to Warped Tour. I talked to them about the campaigns though (the fact that I teach elementary and middle school aged kids when not touring definitely helped!) and eventually they all signed up and all took pins. Then they came back to get stickers.
Then they came back yet again, so I gave them all a white band on the condition that they’d each get at least three of their friends to go online and join the campaigns. They obliged, so I took their photo as a group. I then I had to sign a ‘contract’ on a piece of scrap paper stating that I most absolutely promised to put their photo online (I posted it on my flickr site, and I’m hoping BN also posts it on the (RED) blog or I might have problems…) or else they would sue me. I explained that I work for non-profits and thus had nothing to sue for, but that did not seem to register with them. Then they declared I was the coolest person at the show that day. They stopped by a few more times throughout the afternoon, somehow managing to find yet more 7th grade boys to bring with them to sign up, so I guess they are already working to make good on their word!
We also met lots of other cool people – many wearing and carrying Product (RED) items, a fan from Africa, a teacher working ONE into her curriculum this year, and countless others. Sometimes you can feel like you live in a bubble – you wonder how far these campaigns reach, but night after night of doing this work always reminds me of how people will always find their place, their purpose and calling and run with it.
We’ve got some Dave shows in Florida coming up early this week, and then I am taking off from DMB to launch an all new (RED) project with Common, something I’m really excited about. As always, more updates soon…
-Brande
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
piedmont park
dave matthews band
Unfortunately, we didn’t have much of a volunteer turn out this weekend – I think people were freaked out by the size of the show and the fact that you had to take public transport and couldn’t park. Because of that, we were extra excited to have Elaine from Birmingham join us – she was already coming to the show and volunteered to spend several hours of her time with us behind the booth. We were really grateful for her help – we were pretty busy back there, and my touring partner Joe was spending most of his time floating around getting sign ups, so I definitely needed the help! I hadn’t seen Elaine since she volunteered with us at one of the U2 shows back in the fall of 2005, so it was great to get to hang out and catch up. She is one of our super volunteers – always doing amazing work for ONE and (RED) in her community in Alabama, having been involved with the campaign since its launch three years ago – we bonded over being among the small group of old timers that have been around since 2004! She also was able to fully explain to me exactly what ‘croakies’ were, and how they connected to certain styles of DMB fans…
All night long we got to meet fan after fan that was excited to be involved with ONE and (RED). In the process of talking to thousands of people, I somehow managed to become the best friend to a group of about eight 7th grade boys. They kept coming back to the table - first they were just hanging out, wanting to know ‘what can I get for free?!?!?!’, giving me flashbacks to Warped Tour. I talked to them about the campaigns though (the fact that I teach elementary and middle school aged kids when not touring definitely helped!) and eventually they all signed up and all took pins. Then they came back to get stickers.
Then they came back yet again, so I gave them all a white band on the condition that they’d each get at least three of their friends to go online and join the campaigns. They obliged, so I took their photo as a group. I then I had to sign a ‘contract’ on a piece of scrap paper stating that I most absolutely promised to put their photo online (I posted it on my flickr site, and I’m hoping BN also posts it on the (RED) blog or I might have problems…) or else they would sue me. I explained that I work for non-profits and thus had nothing to sue for, but that did not seem to register with them. Then they declared I was the coolest person at the show that day. They stopped by a few more times throughout the afternoon, somehow managing to find yet more 7th grade boys to bring with them to sign up, so I guess they are already working to make good on their word!
We also met lots of other cool people – many wearing and carrying Product (RED) items, a fan from Africa, a teacher working ONE into her curriculum this year, and countless others. Sometimes you can feel like you live in a bubble – you wonder how far these campaigns reach, but night after night of doing this work always reminds me of how people will always find their place, their purpose and calling and run with it.
We’ve got some Dave shows in Florida coming up early this week, and then I am taking off from DMB to launch an all new (RED) project with Common, something I’m really excited about. As always, more updates soon…
-Brande
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
piedmont park
dave matthews band
Monday, September 03, 2007
We survived another weekend at the Gorge!
The Gorge shows this past weekend were a great success – even if they got off to a windy start! Immediately after setting up our booth, we were greeted with near hurricane force winds. Most of the other vendors around us broke their tents down, be we decided to keep ours up, even if it meant we spent most of the night hanging on, trying to keep them from going airborne!
We trudged on though, working to turn Washington (RED) and spread the word about ONE. Friday night we had veteran volunteer Sammi join us, coming in from Seattle, as well as Rachel and Carnie, first time volunteers who got involved via (RED) and drove all the way up from Portland. The crew did great – they kicked off the weekend in style, getting hundreds of DMB involved with fighting AIDS and poverty. Rachel and Carnie really seemed to have a good time – they were excited by how receptive people were to hear what they were talking about. As always, the night was full of unique stories – people planning trips to Africa, Peace Corp volunteers and more – I am always amazed at the extent of stories we get to hear doing this work.
We had a great team on Saturday night – Kelly and Jason are leaders of the ONE Spokane group. Kelly is a high school teacher who was in Uganda earlier this summer, and he also brought two of his students along, Jamie and David. David is property of the Navy as of Wednesday, so we were very honored that he choose to spend the last of his free time with us. He and Jamie have been active with ONE and other Africa focused organizations at their high school. Sandra drove in with Jason and Kelly – she to is active with ONE in Spokane. Kristina was a first time volunteer who signed up to volunteer via (RED) – she came in a bit late and missed part of our volunteer training, so we were concerned that she wouldn’t feel 100% in doing outreach, but she proved us wrong, and ended up getting more sign ups than anyone! Tim had joined ONE at a U2 show a few years back, he’s not totally sure how he got on my volunteer list, but he was glad he did! Ryan first learned about (RED) via the Vanity Fair (RED) issue earlier this year – this was his first volunteer experience and he did great. Rounding out our team was Sammi from Seattle, for her second night in a row. I couldn’t even find most of our volunteers while they were working – they took to the lawn as soon as we were done with our training and talked to hundreds of fans in the process. We ended up having one of our best nights of the whole tour thanks to this amazing crew!
Sunday brought more wind, and more great volunteers. Jennifer and Sean both are involved with the ONE Spokane group, and both are also teachers. Sean teaches college part time, and Jennifer is an elementary school teacher. We also had Colette and Zach join us, a couple from Seattle that got involved as volunteers through (RED). And of course, Sammi joined us again as well! Once again, our volunteer team proved to be rockstars, getting a ton of DMB fans involved with ONE and (RED).
All weekend long, we were greeted with flashes of white bands and thumbs up from those that had joined us at an earlier show or on another tour. I also met two fans who had to buy new bands because their dog ate theirs, the best story I heard all weekend! We met countless people who shared what they were doing to fight poverty and AIDS in their own community, and heard from dozens of people that had already bought (RED) products and were excited to learn they could do more.
A special thanks to all of the volunteers that helped out this weekend – because of the location of the Gorge, everyone had to drive at least an hour and a half to join us, and we really appreciate the time and commitment of you all. A extra special big thanks to veteran volunteer Sammi, who went so far as to get a motel room so she could join us all three nights – AND she even brought me and Brian cookies!
On that note, I also want to give a quick shout out to our boy Brian 'Red Hawk' Averill – this weekend ended his summer touring as he has to head back to school tomorrow. Brian first joined us as an intern last summer and came on as a staff person this year – he’s been a true trooper, covering everything from Bonnaroo to Warped Tour to the Dave Tour, and he manages to do an amazing job in the face of constant teasing (for being from Wisconsin, for saying ‘bag’ funny, for wearing mandals, for having a red beard…) from me and the rest of our team!
We’re heading to Atlanta next (assuming that check engine light that keeps coming on in the truck doesn’t mean anything really bad…) where I’ll be joined by our New Guy Joe – watch for more updates soon!
-Brande
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
We trudged on though, working to turn Washington (RED) and spread the word about ONE. Friday night we had veteran volunteer Sammi join us, coming in from Seattle, as well as Rachel and Carnie, first time volunteers who got involved via (RED) and drove all the way up from Portland. The crew did great – they kicked off the weekend in style, getting hundreds of DMB involved with fighting AIDS and poverty. Rachel and Carnie really seemed to have a good time – they were excited by how receptive people were to hear what they were talking about. As always, the night was full of unique stories – people planning trips to Africa, Peace Corp volunteers and more – I am always amazed at the extent of stories we get to hear doing this work.
We had a great team on Saturday night – Kelly and Jason are leaders of the ONE Spokane group. Kelly is a high school teacher who was in Uganda earlier this summer, and he also brought two of his students along, Jamie and David. David is property of the Navy as of Wednesday, so we were very honored that he choose to spend the last of his free time with us. He and Jamie have been active with ONE and other Africa focused organizations at their high school. Sandra drove in with Jason and Kelly – she to is active with ONE in Spokane. Kristina was a first time volunteer who signed up to volunteer via (RED) – she came in a bit late and missed part of our volunteer training, so we were concerned that she wouldn’t feel 100% in doing outreach, but she proved us wrong, and ended up getting more sign ups than anyone! Tim had joined ONE at a U2 show a few years back, he’s not totally sure how he got on my volunteer list, but he was glad he did! Ryan first learned about (RED) via the Vanity Fair (RED) issue earlier this year – this was his first volunteer experience and he did great. Rounding out our team was Sammi from Seattle, for her second night in a row. I couldn’t even find most of our volunteers while they were working – they took to the lawn as soon as we were done with our training and talked to hundreds of fans in the process. We ended up having one of our best nights of the whole tour thanks to this amazing crew!
Sunday brought more wind, and more great volunteers. Jennifer and Sean both are involved with the ONE Spokane group, and both are also teachers. Sean teaches college part time, and Jennifer is an elementary school teacher. We also had Colette and Zach join us, a couple from Seattle that got involved as volunteers through (RED). And of course, Sammi joined us again as well! Once again, our volunteer team proved to be rockstars, getting a ton of DMB fans involved with ONE and (RED).
All weekend long, we were greeted with flashes of white bands and thumbs up from those that had joined us at an earlier show or on another tour. I also met two fans who had to buy new bands because their dog ate theirs, the best story I heard all weekend! We met countless people who shared what they were doing to fight poverty and AIDS in their own community, and heard from dozens of people that had already bought (RED) products and were excited to learn they could do more.
A special thanks to all of the volunteers that helped out this weekend – because of the location of the Gorge, everyone had to drive at least an hour and a half to join us, and we really appreciate the time and commitment of you all. A extra special big thanks to veteran volunteer Sammi, who went so far as to get a motel room so she could join us all three nights – AND she even brought me and Brian cookies!
On that note, I also want to give a quick shout out to our boy Brian 'Red Hawk' Averill – this weekend ended his summer touring as he has to head back to school tomorrow. Brian first joined us as an intern last summer and came on as a staff person this year – he’s been a true trooper, covering everything from Bonnaroo to Warped Tour to the Dave Tour, and he manages to do an amazing job in the face of constant teasing (for being from Wisconsin, for saying ‘bag’ funny, for wearing mandals, for having a red beard…) from me and the rest of our team!
We’re heading to Atlanta next (assuming that check engine light that keeps coming on in the truck doesn’t mean anything really bad…) where I’ll be joined by our New Guy Joe – watch for more updates soon!
-Brande
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
Saturday, September 01, 2007
R.I.P Warped Tour 2007
It took our boy Brian "Red Hawk" Averill a whole week to recover from finishing Warped Tour (and some heavy handed nagging on my part) but he finally did a quick write up of his final two days of punk rock and poverty!
-Brande
I went solo the last couple shows of Warped Tour, but both San Diego and L.A. had amazing volunteer crews and (relatively speaking) mild weather.
San Diego’s volunteers braved the sun at my request and did a great job of drawing people into the tent to talk about ONE, Oxfam, and the occasional voter registration. The diversity of our volunteers always impresses me, assuming we have the chance to talk. When a lull developed at the tent we discussed climate change, permaculture, lobbying in D.C., and other topics. Meeting new sets of volunteers every day leads to an erosion of names and faces so I apologize to the many San Diego volunteers whose names I can’t remember (I warned you).
While we had a higher number of sign ups in San Diego, the eleven person crew in Los Angeles decided to set the high mark for the tour. Among the many amazing volunteers we had that joined us were veteran volunteers Rachel, Viola and their friend Daniel. Rachel and Viola volunteered with us for Witness last summer, and they came out to help with ONE this time around.
We also had the pleasure of being deafened by the additional stage featuring Fear, Agent Orange, and the volunteers’ favorite: Revolution Mother. In fact we were treated to two Revolution Mother lectures; the contents of which may be found some place on YouTube.
Thanks to everyone for volunteering on Warped this year. It’s been sweaty.
-Brian
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
-Brande
I went solo the last couple shows of Warped Tour, but both San Diego and L.A. had amazing volunteer crews and (relatively speaking) mild weather.
San Diego’s volunteers braved the sun at my request and did a great job of drawing people into the tent to talk about ONE, Oxfam, and the occasional voter registration. The diversity of our volunteers always impresses me, assuming we have the chance to talk. When a lull developed at the tent we discussed climate change, permaculture, lobbying in D.C., and other topics. Meeting new sets of volunteers every day leads to an erosion of names and faces so I apologize to the many San Diego volunteers whose names I can’t remember (I warned you).
While we had a higher number of sign ups in San Diego, the eleven person crew in Los Angeles decided to set the high mark for the tour. Among the many amazing volunteers we had that joined us were veteran volunteers Rachel, Viola and their friend Daniel. Rachel and Viola volunteered with us for Witness last summer, and they came out to help with ONE this time around.
We also had the pleasure of being deafened by the additional stage featuring Fear, Agent Orange, and the volunteers’ favorite: Revolution Mother. In fact we were treated to two Revolution Mother lectures; the contents of which may be found some place on YouTube.
Thanks to everyone for volunteering on Warped this year. It’s been sweaty.
-Brian
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
Monday, August 27, 2007
Making things a little (RED) on the DMB tour...
(RED) joined the ONE Campaign on the Dave Matthews Band Tour this past weekend, getting lots and lots of Milwaukee supporters involved along the way!
Our weekend kicked off with the unveiling our new set up – complete with a (RED) tent, new (RED) postcards, stickers and buttons and other promotional items – we are pretty happy with how it turned out! Our team was excited to bring the (RED) message out to DMB fans – we have spent the past three summers on tour with the band spreading the word about ONE, and know first hand how eager fans are to get involved in the fight against poverty and AIDS.
We had some stellar volunteers join us this weekend to help out. Sando and Alyssa are volunteer Milwaukee area veterans that always come out to help. Alyssa is best known for being the volunteer that once got over 500 people to join ONE at a single Warped Tour date. She hit the ground running in East Troy this weekend, ready to get tons of DMB fans involved with (RED) and ONE! We also were lucky to have a new crew of (RED) volunteers join us – including our super team on Sunday that went to town, getting in the highest average of sign ups we’ve had on the tour yet. A big thanks to everyone who came out and helped us get thousands of Dave fans involved with (RED) and ONE!
It was way cool to have fan after fan come up and show us their (RED) phone, (RED) Converse or (RED) shirt! Getting to spread the word about what (RED) and ONE are working to do is always exciting, but its especially rewarding to know that people across the country are really taking the work of the campaigns and making them their own – we met countless people that are launching projects in their schools, churches and communities to build support for the Global Fund and ONE.
We are looking forward to the month ahead and getting an opportunity to talk to thousands of more people about (RED) and ONE! Stay tune for more updates from the road…
As always, you can check out more photos on our flickr site!
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
Our weekend kicked off with the unveiling our new set up – complete with a (RED) tent, new (RED) postcards, stickers and buttons and other promotional items – we are pretty happy with how it turned out! Our team was excited to bring the (RED) message out to DMB fans – we have spent the past three summers on tour with the band spreading the word about ONE, and know first hand how eager fans are to get involved in the fight against poverty and AIDS.
We had some stellar volunteers join us this weekend to help out. Sando and Alyssa are volunteer Milwaukee area veterans that always come out to help. Alyssa is best known for being the volunteer that once got over 500 people to join ONE at a single Warped Tour date. She hit the ground running in East Troy this weekend, ready to get tons of DMB fans involved with (RED) and ONE! We also were lucky to have a new crew of (RED) volunteers join us – including our super team on Sunday that went to town, getting in the highest average of sign ups we’ve had on the tour yet. A big thanks to everyone who came out and helped us get thousands of Dave fans involved with (RED) and ONE!
It was way cool to have fan after fan come up and show us their (RED) phone, (RED) Converse or (RED) shirt! Getting to spread the word about what (RED) and ONE are working to do is always exciting, but its especially rewarding to know that people across the country are really taking the work of the campaigns and making them their own – we met countless people that are launching projects in their schools, churches and communities to build support for the Global Fund and ONE.
We are looking forward to the month ahead and getting an opportunity to talk to thousands of more people about (RED) and ONE! Stay tune for more updates from the road…
As always, you can check out more photos on our flickr site!
one campaign
product red
(red)
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
Saturday, August 25, 2007
DMB in Detroit
Our New Guy Joe gave us this quick update from a wet night in Detroit:
The day started out just as any other show. We arrived at the venue (formerly known as Pine Knob) and set up in a stretch of wooded area just outside the East gate entrance. The volunteers showed up promptly, some from clear across the state. Dan gave them the training, and with enthusiasm high they all hit the path ready to gain more signups. Then, just before Dave went on the sky became really dark. The show was postponed and the rain came down hard accented by powerful gusts of wind. We all bunkered down under the lowered One tents and held on so they wouldn't fly away. You know you have a great group of volunteers when they help hold down an aluminum tent in a thunder and lightning storm! The adverse weather passed and after the show we were able to gain many more sign ups and One band sales to spread the word. Huge thanks to all our rain soaked volunteers, and especially Mary and Kathryn for gutting it out to the very end.
-Joe
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
The day started out just as any other show. We arrived at the venue (formerly known as Pine Knob) and set up in a stretch of wooded area just outside the East gate entrance. The volunteers showed up promptly, some from clear across the state. Dan gave them the training, and with enthusiasm high they all hit the path ready to gain more signups. Then, just before Dave went on the sky became really dark. The show was postponed and the rain came down hard accented by powerful gusts of wind. We all bunkered down under the lowered One tents and held on so they wouldn't fly away. You know you have a great group of volunteers when they help hold down an aluminum tent in a thunder and lightning storm! The adverse weather passed and after the show we were able to gain many more sign ups and One band sales to spread the word. Huge thanks to all our rain soaked volunteers, and especially Mary and Kathryn for gutting it out to the very end.
-Joe
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
Thursday, August 23, 2007
And then came Sacramento...
It somehow got hotter today. I leave Warped today – going to join the Dave Matthews team as we bring (RED) out for the first time this weekend. Today was a fun day though – we had a great team of Oxfam volunteers join us, and our ONE crew of volunteers did great, even though they neared heat exhaution! Thankfully, years of doing work on Warped Tour has made me an expert at helping people recover from too much sun and heat, so they made it home safely!
I somehow acquired a fan club of Oxfam supporters. I’m not sure how it happened, but I turned my back briefly to be greeted by the three guys below yelling my name. I told them I’d post their photo on our blog, so here we go:
I got to catch part of Fishbone’s set today – very cool!
Warped has been a blast – it was the shortest amount of time we’d spent on the tour (we usually do all of it) but we made the most of our time out here, getting tens of thousands of young supporters involved with Oxfam and ONE, and we also registered hundreds of voters along the way. Brian is taking over things for the next few days – lets hope he makes it!
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
oxfam
I somehow acquired a fan club of Oxfam supporters. I’m not sure how it happened, but I turned my back briefly to be greeted by the three guys below yelling my name. I told them I’d post their photo on our blog, so here we go:
I got to catch part of Fishbone’s set today – very cool!
Warped has been a blast – it was the shortest amount of time we’d spent on the tour (we usually do all of it) but we made the most of our time out here, getting tens of thousands of young supporters involved with Oxfam and ONE, and we also registered hundreds of voters along the way. Brian is taking over things for the next few days – lets hope he makes it!
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
oxfam
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Warped goes to Fresno
Brian and I got a nice day off in Portland yesterday – we laid low, enjoyed the rain, caught up on work then hit up Powel’s bookstore and got some good food. Brian got to experience Voodoo Doughnut too, though it seemed to have left him partially traumatized.
Our teasing of cold weather over the past three shows came to a cruel end today in Fresno today. Our volunteer crew made up for it though – Kim, Monica, Samantha and Derick saw our Myspace posting asking for volunteers on Monday and came out with little notice. Big thanks to Kim for rounding up people for us! They did a killer job – hundreds of Fresno punk rockers are now involved with ONE because of them, and they managed to survive the brutal heat. We met some very cool fans today as well, people that are doing some pretty impressive stuff with ONE in their community. We also got a ton of people signed up for our volunteer list – so next year, no excuses Fresno, we want your help!
We also got to make our ONE piñata today. It’s not exactly what we’d call a work of art, but, it made us happy. We’re using it at the non-profit fiesta party that is happening tonight. We can’t stay late, have to hit the road for the Sacramento show, but it’ll be nice to get to hang out with our tour mates before everyone goes home this
weekend…
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
oxfam
Our teasing of cold weather over the past three shows came to a cruel end today in Fresno today. Our volunteer crew made up for it though – Kim, Monica, Samantha and Derick saw our Myspace posting asking for volunteers on Monday and came out with little notice. Big thanks to Kim for rounding up people for us! They did a killer job – hundreds of Fresno punk rockers are now involved with ONE because of them, and they managed to survive the brutal heat. We met some very cool fans today as well, people that are doing some pretty impressive stuff with ONE in their community. We also got a ton of people signed up for our volunteer list – so next year, no excuses Fresno, we want your help!
We also got to make our ONE piñata today. It’s not exactly what we’d call a work of art, but, it made us happy. We’re using it at the non-profit fiesta party that is happening tonight. We can’t stay late, have to hit the road for the Sacramento show, but it’ll be nice to get to hang out with our tour mates before everyone goes home this
weekend…
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
oxfam
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Warped Tour in Portland
Portland is always one of my favorite stops of the Warped Tour. The show is always held in this big, massive field that is in the middle of nowhere, a nice change from the regiment of parking lots we usually have to deal with. Plus, it was actually COLD yesterday, pretty much the only time that will happen on Warped!
We had yet another great crew of volunteers come out and join us. James recently completed the Oxfam Change training, and Lacey was involved with Oxfam when she was a student at NYU. Also joining us was Tyler, a Lokahi volunteer that did both voter registration and ONE outreach for us. We also had Goth Mom’s son come join us: Goth Mom is the Warped Tour mom that first offered to volunteer for us back in 2005. She had taken her kids to the show, saw the ONE booth, and asked if we needed help. At some point during the day, Carlos and Jessica convinced her she should get the ‘goth makeover’ being offered by some random vendor that year, and she obliged, thus earning her nick name and some impressive eye make-up. She came back in 2006, and I was bummed I didn’t see her this year. Turns out she had to work, but her son was there, and he offered up an hour of his day to help us out, which was very cool.
Portland also involved piñatas – we are making piñatas for an upcoming ‘non-profit’ Warped Tour party being held in lovely Fresno after the show Wednesday. I can’t say what our piñata is going to be – I think the Invisible Children crew will steal it if we do – but victory is all but guaranteed…
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
oxfam
We had yet another great crew of volunteers come out and join us. James recently completed the Oxfam Change training, and Lacey was involved with Oxfam when she was a student at NYU. Also joining us was Tyler, a Lokahi volunteer that did both voter registration and ONE outreach for us. We also had Goth Mom’s son come join us: Goth Mom is the Warped Tour mom that first offered to volunteer for us back in 2005. She had taken her kids to the show, saw the ONE booth, and asked if we needed help. At some point during the day, Carlos and Jessica convinced her she should get the ‘goth makeover’ being offered by some random vendor that year, and she obliged, thus earning her nick name and some impressive eye make-up. She came back in 2006, and I was bummed I didn’t see her this year. Turns out she had to work, but her son was there, and he offered up an hour of his day to help us out, which was very cool.
Portland also involved piñatas – we are making piñatas for an upcoming ‘non-profit’ Warped Tour party being held in lovely Fresno after the show Wednesday. I can’t say what our piñata is going to be – I think the Invisible Children crew will steal it if we do – but victory is all but guaranteed…
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
warped tour
oxfam
Monday, August 20, 2007
DMB in Indianapolis!
New Guy Joe has an updated from the Dave Matthews shows in Indianapolis last weekend:
Moving from a Warped Tour Experience to DMB was quite
a shift in atmosphere. Not only the style of music,
but the whole feel of the crowd made the two almost
polar opposites, and this was a great way for me to
test my skills and push myself into uncharted
territory. We arrived at the show at around 2pm
(Warped Tour means we have to be on site at 8am!) and we were one of two non-prof tables on the tour, rather than part of a small city
like on Warped. We set up and got the volunteers up
to speed just as the doors were opening, and it was
time to go to work. Floating the crowd quickly brought
me to the realization that even though we stuck out
more in the older, laid-back crowd, this was still
hard work, and nothing is a given. The crowd was
really responsive, and positive toward the campaign,
which always gives you a boost in the field. Time flew
by, and before 'I knew it DMB was launching into their
2 1/2 hour set, and the crowd's focus was totally
enveloped in them. We rested up for the end rush that
was to come after the set was finished, and oh how it
came. As the flood of overstimulated fans bottlenecked
their way up to the gates, their eyes caught the gleam
of the white band and we were bombarded with
inquiries, donations, and sign-ups before the fans
exited into the stand still parking lots. Day two of
the Noblesville shows followed the same routine. We
had another great group of volunteers, the weather was
conducive to floating and engaging the fans, and the
end rush after the set was even more intense than the
night before. The two days of Noblesville brought
great results and another new experience for me on the
outreach tour. More shows coming up in the area, and I
hope we continue to receive this level of Midwest
love.
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
Moving from a Warped Tour Experience to DMB was quite
a shift in atmosphere. Not only the style of music,
but the whole feel of the crowd made the two almost
polar opposites, and this was a great way for me to
test my skills and push myself into uncharted
territory. We arrived at the show at around 2pm
(Warped Tour means we have to be on site at 8am!) and we were one of two non-prof tables on the tour, rather than part of a small city
like on Warped. We set up and got the volunteers up
to speed just as the doors were opening, and it was
time to go to work. Floating the crowd quickly brought
me to the realization that even though we stuck out
more in the older, laid-back crowd, this was still
hard work, and nothing is a given. The crowd was
really responsive, and positive toward the campaign,
which always gives you a boost in the field. Time flew
by, and before 'I knew it DMB was launching into their
2 1/2 hour set, and the crowd's focus was totally
enveloped in them. We rested up for the end rush that
was to come after the set was finished, and oh how it
came. As the flood of overstimulated fans bottlenecked
their way up to the gates, their eyes caught the gleam
of the white band and we were bombarded with
inquiries, donations, and sign-ups before the fans
exited into the stand still parking lots. Day two of
the Noblesville shows followed the same routine. We
had another great group of volunteers, the weather was
conducive to floating and engaging the fans, and the
end rush after the set was even more intense than the
night before. The two days of Noblesville brought
great results and another new experience for me on the
outreach tour. More shows coming up in the area, and I
hope we continue to receive this level of Midwest
love.
one campaign
lokahi outreach
concert outreach
volunteering
activism
dave matthews band
Sunday, August 19, 2007
WE came to the Gorge, but our stuff didn't follow...
Warped Tour, if nothing else, is a tour that ALWAYS is full of surprises. You find yourself surprised at how much the young fans know about the campaigns we work on, you find yourself surprised at how long you can last in 110 heat, and sometimes, you show up for the show and find out – surprise! – that the truck with all of your stuff on it didn’t make it in. It wasn’t just our stuff that was on the truck – a good chunk of the other non-profit vendors, record labels and other sponsors were in the same predicament. Brian and I are nothing if not hardcore though, and we decided that the show must go on! So we scrambled to put together a mini booth – we snagged a table (our tables came – they were on a different truck – but tables were all that we had: no tent, no totes, no chairs even, but we fixed that by finding a big bucket we could turn over and sit on…) and begged the guys in the Guitar Center Web Lab to let us print off about 80 of our sign up sheets (which kinda worked, a big thanks to them for helping, even though their printer ran out of ink before we were done…) then we scavenged our car to see what we had in hand. Thankfully, we always take our banners and signs with us rather than put them on the truck – they get pretty trashed if we do. So we had those, plus a box of white bands, plus ONE and Oxfam shirts, some literature and pens, so really, we were good to go. I then pretended we were on some sort of designer challenge show – make a booth out of stuff you find in your car and on the ground! – and I have to admit I was pretty impressed with our ingenuity. Clipboards were the biggest thing we were missing, so we made some out of cardboard. They looked a little sad, but they DID fit the overall Warped Tour aesthetic.
The Gorge is beautiful so that countered what could have been a bummer of a day, and the weather, amazingly, was even cooler than Idaho, so we were still excited to be at work. We had three great Oxfam volunteers join us: Adrian, Stephanie and John. Stephanie recently took part in Oxfam’s Change training, so she was very well versed and ready for action. The team did great – they worked all day long and got hundreds of Warped fans involved with Oxfam, and didn’t seem to mind our rather compromised set up. All in all, we made the most of our day – we got hundreds of more people involved with ONE and Oxfam, recruited some new volunteers and got to test our clipboard making abilities…
The Gorge is beautiful so that countered what could have been a bummer of a day, and the weather, amazingly, was even cooler than Idaho, so we were still excited to be at work. We had three great Oxfam volunteers join us: Adrian, Stephanie and John. Stephanie recently took part in Oxfam’s Change training, so she was very well versed and ready for action. The team did great – they worked all day long and got hundreds of Warped fans involved with Oxfam, and didn’t seem to mind our rather compromised set up. All in all, we made the most of our day – we got hundreds of more people involved with ONE and Oxfam, recruited some new volunteers and got to test our clipboard making abilities…
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Lokahi goes to Idaho...
Yesterday was officially the first time we have ever done a show in Idaho. Usually the Warped date of the tour hits in such a way that the overnight drive to it would be impossible for our team to complete. This year however, it fit the schedule, so we decided to give it a go. Get it? Give it a go in Idaho! This is what hanging out in a car with Brian for too long does to you…
We got lots of fans involved with what we are doing, and, importantly, worked to build up a volunteer base for the area, something we really need. All in all, Boise did represent – lots of people joined both ONE and Oxfam, registered to vote and took our information with them.
We also had two great volunteers join us. Graham and Doug go to school nearby and are very involved with Oxfam. They helped us get lots of Oxfam and ONE sign ups – Brian was so impressed that by the end of the day he was asking me, like a little kid, if ‘they could just go on tour with us? Pleeeease?’ Unfortunately, Graham and Doug had commitments that did not allow them to spend considerable time in a car, get next to no sleep, and work set up in parking lots around the country like we do on Warped, so they had to go home, but we hope to see them next summer.
The weather was by far the nicest part of the day, at least for me. After being beat up by the east coast sun and Midwest blazing humidity, Brian and I were very excited to have a day of mild temperatures…plus, nothing beats driving through the Pacific Northwest.
We got lots of fans involved with what we are doing, and, importantly, worked to build up a volunteer base for the area, something we really need. All in all, Boise did represent – lots of people joined both ONE and Oxfam, registered to vote and took our information with them.
We also had two great volunteers join us. Graham and Doug go to school nearby and are very involved with Oxfam. They helped us get lots of Oxfam and ONE sign ups – Brian was so impressed that by the end of the day he was asking me, like a little kid, if ‘they could just go on tour with us? Pleeeease?’ Unfortunately, Graham and Doug had commitments that did not allow them to spend considerable time in a car, get next to no sleep, and work set up in parking lots around the country like we do on Warped, so they had to go home, but we hope to see them next summer.
The weather was by far the nicest part of the day, at least for me. After being beat up by the east coast sun and Midwest blazing humidity, Brian and I were very excited to have a day of mild temperatures…plus, nothing beats driving through the Pacific Northwest.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Warped Tour Kansas City!
Today Sumner pointed out that we were, as he put it, idiots. We of course accepted this, but when pressed as to what exactly brought him to this conclusion today, he replied that “you came back on for the worst days of the whole tour. It wasn’t even this hot in Texas!” We, unfortunately, didn’t have much oversight or say in determining when we’d be coming back on, if we had we probably would have thought twice. I didn’t think today was as brutal, but it was still pretty intense!
Nonetheless, we powered through the day – getting lots of and lots of fans involved with ONE, Oxfam, and registered to vote, and working with some very cool volunteers as well. Ashley came out and joined us in volunteer for Oxfam, and we had a team of three ONE volunteers: Jordan, Jared and Cameron. Jordan is in high school, and Cameron and Jared are recent grads. They became involved with ONE via their youth Christian organization. All four volunteers braved yet another day of wicked temperatures to talk to their peers about fighting poverty and social injustice. Lately, I’ve been placing a bigger emphasis on the peer outreach factor when training volunteers – what’s particularly cool, I think, about the concert outreach we do, is that we are using music as the unifying factor. Because we are at a show together, we become de-facto peers, something that transcends race and class and gender and age. Because of that, I think, people respond even stronger to what we are talking about than they would in other settings.
Also, I love the catering team at Warped. They got pretty mad at the fact that I guess yesterday people left catering a big mess, and we were all greeted with this sign:
For the record, my mom raised me to pick up after myself, so I can proudly say I was not one of the guilty ones – I even go out of my way to recycle…
Nonetheless, we powered through the day – getting lots of and lots of fans involved with ONE, Oxfam, and registered to vote, and working with some very cool volunteers as well. Ashley came out and joined us in volunteer for Oxfam, and we had a team of three ONE volunteers: Jordan, Jared and Cameron. Jordan is in high school, and Cameron and Jared are recent grads. They became involved with ONE via their youth Christian organization. All four volunteers braved yet another day of wicked temperatures to talk to their peers about fighting poverty and social injustice. Lately, I’ve been placing a bigger emphasis on the peer outreach factor when training volunteers – what’s particularly cool, I think, about the concert outreach we do, is that we are using music as the unifying factor. Because we are at a show together, we become de-facto peers, something that transcends race and class and gender and age. Because of that, I think, people respond even stronger to what we are talking about than they would in other settings.
Also, I love the catering team at Warped. They got pretty mad at the fact that I guess yesterday people left catering a big mess, and we were all greeted with this sign:
For the record, my mom raised me to pick up after myself, so I can proudly say I was not one of the guilty ones – I even go out of my way to recycle…
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Warped Tour St. Louis
Today was my first day back on Warped for me after a six week long hiatus, and though I was really excited to be back out there, Warped responded by smacking me upside the head with what had to have been one of the hottest days on the tour in as long as I can remember. Plus, I’m admittedly kinda sick and pretty sleep deprived at this point, so I was feeling pretty wiped out. It was one of those Warped days where all you could really think about from 3:30 on was how fast you could drive to your hotel in the next town (four hours away, in the case of this evening) so that you could take a shower. Which was the first thing I did.
However, we did get some work done despite the crippling temperatures. Nick, our volunteer, was great – he got over 200 people to join Oxfam’s email list, and he is also a lead volunteer for the ONE Campaign in St. Louis. We talked to lots of people today….I love doing Warped tour, I have to admit it’s probably my favorite tour/event to do. I’m a teacher, so in part I think I just connect with talking to so many young fans in a really strong way. I’m looking forward to the week ahead, even if it means back to a 8am load in-7pm load out-7 hour drive-repeat it again schedule!
However, we did get some work done despite the crippling temperatures. Nick, our volunteer, was great – he got over 200 people to join Oxfam’s email list, and he is also a lead volunteer for the ONE Campaign in St. Louis. We talked to lots of people today….I love doing Warped tour, I have to admit it’s probably my favorite tour/event to do. I’m a teacher, so in part I think I just connect with talking to so many young fans in a really strong way. I’m looking forward to the week ahead, even if it means back to a 8am load in-7pm load out-7 hour drive-repeat it again schedule!
Monday, August 13, 2007
GUEST BLOG! Updates from our New Guy Joe!
Our new guy Joe gives us his version of this past week - we're pretty glad he didn't run away crying like some of the other new guys have!
From our New Guy Joe:
Westward from PA for the show in Noblesville, IN. We drove through
the night and I rediscovered just how wide Ohio is. We arrived to the venue at about 8 am and could tell it was going to be a hot day. We got the booth set up, hooked up with our two volunteers, and in no time doors were open and we were underway. The kids were very responsive, and it was nice to see that people all around are genuinely interested in the issues we are facing. The day flew by, and by the time KillSwitch was Engaging our ears without mercy, it was time to load out and hit the road back to PA.
Ohio didn't get any thinner, but night time driving, coffee, and ipods gave us the gusto to reach Burgettstown, PA where we got some sleep before the days show. The heat hadn't subsided yet, but it beats shivering any day, and the kids at the show still had plenty of energy and interest in the ONE Campaign while we floated the crowds and competed with the roars of the Warped. Volunteers brought added enthusiasm and through a great team effort we had another successful day.
Back to the open road chasing that white line to Mansfield, Mass. The weather broke and we were presented with a 79 degree day that gave us a huge boost in energy. Unfortunately, the tour truck that had our gear (and the gear of many others) had gotten not only delayed, but lost on the 10 hour drive from PA. A new challenge. We reserved our energy until it arrived and did a quick set up before 2pm, and hit the surrounding pavement to spread the word. The energy level was definitely up all around since the heat wasn't so intense. The bands were ripping, the kids were responsive and positive, and I couldn't help but be grateful for being able to be a part of it all. Despite our late start we were able to talk to a lot of fans, and in all the day was a success.
One more stop for me on the Warped adventure, so up to Darien Center, NY we went to Six Flags and the open air venue attached to it. The continued positivity of the fans, the awesome weather, and the overall opportunity of being part of the outreach, made this a great finale to my Warped week. The day went by quick, as usual, we got a lot more people signed up, and I was even lucky enough to have a quick but fully entertaining lesson in a new conspiracy theory from one friendly fan. Always an entertaining occurrence. So the day wrapped up, and Brian and I hit the road back to Chicago and while on the way finally discovered (by accident) that the rental car actually did have cruise control! I guess our expertise doesn't lie in cars. The outreach experience on tour is exciting, challenging, and something I would recommend YOU get involved in! I can't wait for the next adventure.
From our New Guy Joe:
Westward from PA for the show in Noblesville, IN. We drove through
the night and I rediscovered just how wide Ohio is. We arrived to the venue at about 8 am and could tell it was going to be a hot day. We got the booth set up, hooked up with our two volunteers, and in no time doors were open and we were underway. The kids were very responsive, and it was nice to see that people all around are genuinely interested in the issues we are facing. The day flew by, and by the time KillSwitch was Engaging our ears without mercy, it was time to load out and hit the road back to PA.
Ohio didn't get any thinner, but night time driving, coffee, and ipods gave us the gusto to reach Burgettstown, PA where we got some sleep before the days show. The heat hadn't subsided yet, but it beats shivering any day, and the kids at the show still had plenty of energy and interest in the ONE Campaign while we floated the crowds and competed with the roars of the Warped. Volunteers brought added enthusiasm and through a great team effort we had another successful day.
Back to the open road chasing that white line to Mansfield, Mass. The weather broke and we were presented with a 79 degree day that gave us a huge boost in energy. Unfortunately, the tour truck that had our gear (and the gear of many others) had gotten not only delayed, but lost on the 10 hour drive from PA. A new challenge. We reserved our energy until it arrived and did a quick set up before 2pm, and hit the surrounding pavement to spread the word. The energy level was definitely up all around since the heat wasn't so intense. The bands were ripping, the kids were responsive and positive, and I couldn't help but be grateful for being able to be a part of it all. Despite our late start we were able to talk to a lot of fans, and in all the day was a success.
One more stop for me on the Warped adventure, so up to Darien Center, NY we went to Six Flags and the open air venue attached to it. The continued positivity of the fans, the awesome weather, and the overall opportunity of being part of the outreach, made this a great finale to my Warped week. The day went by quick, as usual, we got a lot more people signed up, and I was even lucky enough to have a quick but fully entertaining lesson in a new conspiracy theory from one friendly fan. Always an entertaining occurrence. So the day wrapped up, and Brian and I hit the road back to Chicago and while on the way finally discovered (by accident) that the rental car actually did have cruise control! I guess our expertise doesn't lie in cars. The outreach experience on tour is exciting, challenging, and something I would recommend YOU get involved in! I can't wait for the next adventure.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
DMB in DC!
Carlos and I left Pittsburgh yesterday AM and headed out for Bristow. I always like working the venue here – it has a nice layout, and we usually do pretty well. We were lucky to have yet another great volunteer team join us. Nina and Jane were a mom and daughter team that were first time volunteers – they had signed up for info on volunteering at another concert and were excited to join us in supporting ONE. Jane is a lawyer working on a theology degree, and Jane is about to start high school. I always love learning about the diverse backgrounds that our volunteers encompass! We also had Terry, who first joined ONE at Live 8 in London, Eva, who volunteered with us at the DMB shows in Charlottesville last year, and Angelina and Kelly were first time volunteers that rounded out our crew for the evening. They all did a great job, talking to fans for hours and hours and getting them involved and signed up.
We also got help from Anne, our official former stalker. She’s not really a stalker, but she is a good buddy of ours and came out to lots of shows when she was a ONE organizer in the Chicago area. Now she has a fancy office in the DC ONE office and doesn’t make it out quite as much, but she jumped at the chance to help us at the Dave show. Afterwards we did the traditional post show dinner/drinks at whatever bad random chain was still open – in this case, Friday’s. Mashed potatoes all the way around…
All in all the night was a big success – we have now signed up over 4,000 DMB fans already, and we are still pretty early into the tour. Carlos and I are driving to Chicago today – I get a day off to catch up on work for most of Monday, then I meet up with Brian to rejoin Warped Tour. Dan and new guy Joe will be covering the Dave shows next week – it should be pretty productive.
We also got help from Anne, our official former stalker. She’s not really a stalker, but she is a good buddy of ours and came out to lots of shows when she was a ONE organizer in the Chicago area. Now she has a fancy office in the DC ONE office and doesn’t make it out quite as much, but she jumped at the chance to help us at the Dave show. Afterwards we did the traditional post show dinner/drinks at whatever bad random chain was still open – in this case, Friday’s. Mashed potatoes all the way around…
All in all the night was a big success – we have now signed up over 4,000 DMB fans already, and we are still pretty early into the tour. Carlos and I are driving to Chicago today – I get a day off to catch up on work for most of Monday, then I meet up with Brian to rejoin Warped Tour. Dan and new guy Joe will be covering the Dave shows next week – it should be pretty productive.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
DMB in Pittsburgh!
I love doing shows in Pittsburgh. No particular reason why – we just do well, fans are responsive, and we have a killer volunteer team here. Brian came out to join us for the second time this week – he and Jordan were both at the Warped tour date with us two days before. Brian more or less heads up volunteer efforts for ONE locally, and we are very grateful for the fact that he comes out and joins us pretty much every time we are in town! We also had Lyzz and Riva two high school students, and Brad, Jenni and Laura rounded out our team. They powered through the night, and are responsible for the best night we’ve had on the Dave tour yet!
Carlos and I got to the venue earlier than normal, which gave us plenty of time to set up and make fun of Josh. Josh sometimes works with us – he headed up our outreach efforts on DMB last year - and this year he is on the tour doing work for Reverb. Giving him a hard time is a bit of hobby for me and Carlos, so we were glad to have some spare time before the doors opened to engage in our passion.
Once the doors opened we were off and running. The table was busy all night, we talked to tons of cool supporters, many of whom got signed up not only for ONE but also to become a volunteer for the campaign as well. We also have Edun shirts available for supporters this time around, and we are always surprised at how popular they still are!
We’ve got a four hour drive ahead of us, then we’ll be setting up for the Bristow show…
GUEST BLOG! Updates from Former Intern Brian, aka 'Red Hawk'
I’m handing over the blog reigns momentarily to our Former Intern Brian, who is now known as Red Hawk (see attached photo for explanation). Here is his version of the past few weeks:
Despite the passage of only two weeks, our start on the Dave Matthews Band Tour now seems like a blur. In an epic drive, Brande drove from Long Beach, CA, to Milwaukee to retrieve me. I experienced the last 17 hours of the drive into Massachusetts. The drive was long and we hit construction making us later than we’d hoped, but that’s how touring goes.
The Massachusetts shows provided a wicked accent and the biggest donation anyone has ever given me. While I enjoyed the Boston area accent Brande made me well aware of my own Midwestern take on the word “bag.” Now I’m self conscious about it. (Editor’s note: seriously, you need to hear how Brian says the word ‘bag’. It makes me heart all of Milwaukee.)
I digress. We finished the Mass. shows and headed to Hartford where Brande split off for Virgin Music Festival and I picked Jessica up for a four show run on DMB. We had one volunteer per Hartford show and both did great to boost our numbers. Both volunteers even braved the post show mass exodus of the less than sober crowd and sold wristbands with me.
The next day put me on a 7-state drive to rejoin Warped Tour with Joe. Upon arrival we received a warm welcome back from our friends in the Take Action area (by warm I mean roughly 95 degrees plus Midwest humidity). The early mornings and late drives on Warped are a stark contrast to the DMB Tour. The first few days are always hectic, gathering forgotten supplies and adjusting to the change in schedule. Whether it was regarding the oppressive heat, general fatigue, or randomness, Joe soon became familiar with the phrase “Welcome to Warped.” This phrase especially applied on August 9th, when we returned to Massachusetts for Warped.
Not only was the whole tour late, but the semi truck containing everything we owned except our three tables got lost. At that point there’s no amount of improvisation that can save you before that truck shows up. So we waited and waited until the truck rolled in around 1:30 pm. The Oxfam interns helped us unload our stuff and we rushed through setup. The rest of the day turned out to be very productive with everyone taking turns floating and tabling.
Buffalo, New York, offered one of the cooler shows I’ve experienced and it boosted our energy. Volunteers and weather affect our work the most on Warped so when we have volunteers and/or great weather we get pumped for the day. So thank you to all of the volunteers that have helped us thus far. I hope to see some of the old West Coast volunteers in the coming days…
Despite the passage of only two weeks, our start on the Dave Matthews Band Tour now seems like a blur. In an epic drive, Brande drove from Long Beach, CA, to Milwaukee to retrieve me. I experienced the last 17 hours of the drive into Massachusetts. The drive was long and we hit construction making us later than we’d hoped, but that’s how touring goes.
The Massachusetts shows provided a wicked accent and the biggest donation anyone has ever given me. While I enjoyed the Boston area accent Brande made me well aware of my own Midwestern take on the word “bag.” Now I’m self conscious about it. (Editor’s note: seriously, you need to hear how Brian says the word ‘bag’. It makes me heart all of Milwaukee.)
I digress. We finished the Mass. shows and headed to Hartford where Brande split off for Virgin Music Festival and I picked Jessica up for a four show run on DMB. We had one volunteer per Hartford show and both did great to boost our numbers. Both volunteers even braved the post show mass exodus of the less than sober crowd and sold wristbands with me.
The next day put me on a 7-state drive to rejoin Warped Tour with Joe. Upon arrival we received a warm welcome back from our friends in the Take Action area (by warm I mean roughly 95 degrees plus Midwest humidity). The early mornings and late drives on Warped are a stark contrast to the DMB Tour. The first few days are always hectic, gathering forgotten supplies and adjusting to the change in schedule. Whether it was regarding the oppressive heat, general fatigue, or randomness, Joe soon became familiar with the phrase “Welcome to Warped.” This phrase especially applied on August 9th, when we returned to Massachusetts for Warped.
Not only was the whole tour late, but the semi truck containing everything we owned except our three tables got lost. At that point there’s no amount of improvisation that can save you before that truck shows up. So we waited and waited until the truck rolled in around 1:30 pm. The Oxfam interns helped us unload our stuff and we rushed through setup. The rest of the day turned out to be very productive with everyone taking turns floating and tabling.
Buffalo, New York, offered one of the cooler shows I’ve experienced and it boosted our energy. Volunteers and weather affect our work the most on Warped so when we have volunteers and/or great weather we get pumped for the day. So thank you to all of the volunteers that have helped us thus far. I hope to see some of the old West Coast volunteers in the coming days…
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
DMB in Philly
Philly has offered us some of our greatest highs (Live 8, U2 shows, etc) and also our…I wouldn’t call them lows, but our most…challenging dates. There is a tailgating culture that is wholly unique to the Philly/Camden area, matched only perhaps by New Jersey in its robustness, and tailgating tends to only mean one things: severe inebriation. That said, the Dave shows that Jessica and I braved the past few days were quite productive – we got lots and lots of people signed up involved with ONE, met some very cool people that are now on our list to be volunteers, and we got to experience both Tattooed Mom’s and Chickie and Pete’s, two of my favorite places in Philly to hit up when on tour.
Monday was Jessica’s birthday, so I took her out for sushi, then we hit up Tattooed Mom’s, a great dive punk bar that I’ve gone to for as long as I’ve been coming to Philly. Once inside, it only made sense that we’d run into Curt and . Curt and I had a ‘hey, I know you from somewhere totally different’ moment on the first night of the Dave tour. We quickly realized it was Warped Tour – Curt works for Epitaph Records and it’s very cool subsidiary label Anti, and was there to promote Xavier Rudd, who was opening for DMB on the first few nights of the tour.
The Camden shows were pretty fun, despite the threat of a massive thunderstorm. Jessica and I were able to set up quickly and get to work. We had three great volunteers join us on Tuesday – Brit and I had just met at the Virgin festival four days before. She came out to volunteer with her friend Brent, and we also had Maria join us, rounding out our team. They did GREAT, going non-stop for hours and getting lots and lots of fans signed up. As always, the venue staff at Tweeter was super helpful, and we owe a special thanks to merch guy Bo for letting us steal his hand cart over and over.
Jessica flew home to Seattle this AM, I’m heading out to Pittsburgh where I’ll pick up Carlos, who will be helping me out for the next two shows.
Monday was Jessica’s birthday, so I took her out for sushi, then we hit up Tattooed Mom’s, a great dive punk bar that I’ve gone to for as long as I’ve been coming to Philly. Once inside, it only made sense that we’d run into Curt and . Curt and I had a ‘hey, I know you from somewhere totally different’ moment on the first night of the Dave tour. We quickly realized it was Warped Tour – Curt works for Epitaph Records and it’s very cool subsidiary label Anti, and was there to promote Xavier Rudd, who was opening for DMB on the first few nights of the tour.
The Camden shows were pretty fun, despite the threat of a massive thunderstorm. Jessica and I were able to set up quickly and get to work. We had three great volunteers join us on Tuesday – Brit and I had just met at the Virgin festival four days before. She came out to volunteer with her friend Brent, and we also had Maria join us, rounding out our team. They did GREAT, going non-stop for hours and getting lots and lots of fans signed up. As always, the venue staff at Tweeter was super helpful, and we owe a special thanks to merch guy Bo for letting us steal his hand cart over and over.
Jessica flew home to Seattle this AM, I’m heading out to Pittsburgh where I’ll pick up Carlos, who will be helping me out for the next two shows.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Virgin Festival!
Brian and Jessica took over the Dave shows in Hartford this weekend, while me, Dan, and our new guy Joe headed down to Baltimore for the Virgin Festival. We worked Virgin last year when it was a one day event, and we were excited to get another opportunity to take part, this time over two days. After the initial shock of humidity and heat subsided, we got to work – we did both outreach for ONE and also had a Lokahi voter registration booth as well. We had a lot of success and fun – there are over 2,000 new ONE supporters and 100’s of registered voters as a result of our work, and we got to check out some great sets as well, with the Beastie Boys and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s being the stand out for me at least. We got to also hang out with our friend Extrawack Bob, who was there manning the Oxfam booth. Good times all the way around, and new guy Joe didn’t seem to get scared off, which is always a bonus!
We had some cool ONE volunteers join us this weekend as well. On Saturday, Andy and Tracy came out. Andy had recently become involved with ONE, he’s in the Navy and does stuff that sounds way cooler than anything we’ll get to do. We figured it was his military training that kept him going all day strong despite the heat! He also sent us a very nice note on Monday, thanking us for the opportunity and giving us some words of encouragement – something that is always great to hear! Tracy came out on Saturday and Sunday, she’s a recent Southern California transplant living in the Baltimore area. On Sunday we also had Sara, Deidree and Sajid rounding out our team – all are involved with ONE locally. I love learning about what brings volunteers to us – it’s by far one of the most rewarding parts of what I do day in and out!
I’m back off to the Dave tour in Camden – I’ll be working with Jessica while Brian and Joe take over Warped Tour.
We had some cool ONE volunteers join us this weekend as well. On Saturday, Andy and Tracy came out. Andy had recently become involved with ONE, he’s in the Navy and does stuff that sounds way cooler than anything we’ll get to do. We figured it was his military training that kept him going all day strong despite the heat! He also sent us a very nice note on Monday, thanking us for the opportunity and giving us some words of encouragement – something that is always great to hear! Tracy came out on Saturday and Sunday, she’s a recent Southern California transplant living in the Baltimore area. On Sunday we also had Sara, Deidree and Sajid rounding out our team – all are involved with ONE locally. I love learning about what brings volunteers to us – it’s by far one of the most rewarding parts of what I do day in and out!
I’m back off to the Dave tour in Camden – I’ll be working with Jessica while Brian and Joe take over Warped Tour.
Friday, August 03, 2007
DMB in Boston
DMB Boston
We kicked off our third summer on the road with the Dave Matthews Band yesterday. Getting here was a bit of a challenge – last minute approvals meant we had to pack up and leave the west coast pretty fast and more or less book it to the opposite coast to make it to the show on time. ‘You’re driving to Boston?!?!?” was the response I got most of Saturday as I informed friends of our new plans. I’ve driven coast to coast for this sort of work many times before, and there is really no other way to get a truck and a ton of stuff where it needs to be, so I guess it just doesn’t seem like all that big of a deal to me anymore. Picked up Brian in Milwaukee then we made our way to Boston, getting to the venue with literally minutes to spare. Our first volunteer crew of the summer tour was a powerhouse – we had nine Boston based ONE supporters come out to join us in all, and they were patient in putting up with the first training I had done in over a month, one done about a total of 7 hours sleep over the past three days. We ended the night with hundreds of new ONE supporters joining the campaign. On Thursday we had Amy and Wendy join us, volunteering their time to help us recruit more ONE supporters. Amy is very active with the local Boston ONE chapter – she helped us to recruit volunteers for the Boston shows - and had volunteered with us in the past. Wendy was a first time volunteer, she is from South Africa and feels a strong connection to the work of ONE. She also became our point of amusement during the night – at one point, she accidently asked fans if they wanted to ‘sign up to end world peace’, instead of world poverty, getting quizzical looks, but also getting people to stop! Once we all laughed and joked about it, it was on her brain, so she kept saying it on accident over and over!
It was great to be back on the ground with the Dave Matthews Band crew again – we are very excited about the weeks ahead!
We kicked off our third summer on the road with the Dave Matthews Band yesterday. Getting here was a bit of a challenge – last minute approvals meant we had to pack up and leave the west coast pretty fast and more or less book it to the opposite coast to make it to the show on time. ‘You’re driving to Boston?!?!?” was the response I got most of Saturday as I informed friends of our new plans. I’ve driven coast to coast for this sort of work many times before, and there is really no other way to get a truck and a ton of stuff where it needs to be, so I guess it just doesn’t seem like all that big of a deal to me anymore. Picked up Brian in Milwaukee then we made our way to Boston, getting to the venue with literally minutes to spare. Our first volunteer crew of the summer tour was a powerhouse – we had nine Boston based ONE supporters come out to join us in all, and they were patient in putting up with the first training I had done in over a month, one done about a total of 7 hours sleep over the past three days. We ended the night with hundreds of new ONE supporters joining the campaign. On Thursday we had Amy and Wendy join us, volunteering their time to help us recruit more ONE supporters. Amy is very active with the local Boston ONE chapter – she helped us to recruit volunteers for the Boston shows - and had volunteered with us in the past. Wendy was a first time volunteer, she is from South Africa and feels a strong connection to the work of ONE. She also became our point of amusement during the night – at one point, she accidently asked fans if they wanted to ‘sign up to end world peace’, instead of world poverty, getting quizzical looks, but also getting people to stop! Once we all laughed and joked about it, it was on her brain, so she kept saying it on accident over and over!
It was great to be back on the ground with the Dave Matthews Band crew again – we are very excited about the weeks ahead!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Back with a vengeance: Warped Tour!
Warped tour kicked off in California last weekend, with Lokahi in tow! This is actually the seventh summer we’ve been on Warped in some capacity, and we are very excited to get to talk to so many people – especially so many young people – about the work that our partners like ONE and Oxfam are doing. It seems like even more people are familiar and eager to get involved with these campaign than ever before – we are very excited about taking the message of ONE and Oxfam out to more Warped fans in the months ahead, and are still working to launch a pretty big voter registration effort as well. It never ceases to amaze me to see how eager people are to be involved – you can sense a real cultural shift happening, gradually fighting poverty and reforming the Farm Bill are becoming a part of every day life for a lot of people, something they are familiar and involved with.
As always, we had some very cool crews of volunteers joining us each day. On Friday we had two volunteers new to the ONE Campaign – Sarah and Hazel. Both are students, Sarah is in high school, and Hazel is about to start graduate school. They were true troopers, going along with the occasional moments of chaos as the learning curve of the first day of the tour took place! We also had two new Oxfam volunteers – Victoria and Fernando. Both were eager to jump on in and get lots of fans involved with Oxfam and reforming the US Farm Bill. On Saturday Sonya and Shannon joined us. They were deep in conversation by the time I got back to the booth to meet them – I assumed they knew each other, but as it would turn out they had just met and found out that they were both local high school teachers that were working to incorporate the issues ONE works on into their classrooms. They worked together all day long, getting hundreds of people involved with ONE, and hopefully they’ll be doing organizing in the Ventura area in the weeks to come as well. We also got to work with Shelby and Brett, two Oxfam volunteers that came up from LA to help out for the day. On Sunday we had three Oxfam volunteers – Megan, who is heading up the Oxfam Action team in San Fran and Danna, who I met at an Arcade Fire show earlier in the year, and also Jerome, a documentary photographer. I barely saw any of them all day – they were too busy floating around and talking to people!
And, finally, on Sunday in San Francisco, we had Danny and his mom, Julie, join us. Danny and Julie first learned and joined ONE when they were at the Warped Tour date in San Francisco last year. Danny was actually featured on the ONE blog earlier this year, so I was eager to meet him. He is doing a lot of work at his school, where he’ll be a sixth grader next year, to get his classmates involved with ONE. I always like having young volunteers join us – I teach during part of the year, and I like working with youth, so it’s always rewarding to see kids that are so engaged, and it’s double rewarding to know that it was our work on Warped that first got Danny involved with the campaign a year ago.
After giving Danny and Julie an overview of what we’d be doing, I had Brian, part of our touring team, finish the training I started. He came back a few minutes later. ‘Um, so Danny is talking to people about the GNP.” Friends of mine on the tour – bands, other non-profits, etc – were teasing me about engaging in child labor of some sort, but it turns out that Danny really knows his stuff, and before we knew it he was off, coming back every hour or so to hand in sheets and sheets of names and letting me know which lines of people he’d already hit up. We figured he’d gotten close to 200 people to join by the end of the day! Danny is trying to get more students his age involved with ONE in the bay area, so if you are interested in working with him, be sure to send us a message.
The tour is up in Canada this week, so we get a few days to catch our breath, but watch for more updates to come soon.
warped tour
lokahi outreach
one campaign
oxfam
concert outreach
volunteering
youth activism
As always, we had some very cool crews of volunteers joining us each day. On Friday we had two volunteers new to the ONE Campaign – Sarah and Hazel. Both are students, Sarah is in high school, and Hazel is about to start graduate school. They were true troopers, going along with the occasional moments of chaos as the learning curve of the first day of the tour took place! We also had two new Oxfam volunteers – Victoria and Fernando. Both were eager to jump on in and get lots of fans involved with Oxfam and reforming the US Farm Bill. On Saturday Sonya and Shannon joined us. They were deep in conversation by the time I got back to the booth to meet them – I assumed they knew each other, but as it would turn out they had just met and found out that they were both local high school teachers that were working to incorporate the issues ONE works on into their classrooms. They worked together all day long, getting hundreds of people involved with ONE, and hopefully they’ll be doing organizing in the Ventura area in the weeks to come as well. We also got to work with Shelby and Brett, two Oxfam volunteers that came up from LA to help out for the day. On Sunday we had three Oxfam volunteers – Megan, who is heading up the Oxfam Action team in San Fran and Danna, who I met at an Arcade Fire show earlier in the year, and also Jerome, a documentary photographer. I barely saw any of them all day – they were too busy floating around and talking to people!
And, finally, on Sunday in San Francisco, we had Danny and his mom, Julie, join us. Danny and Julie first learned and joined ONE when they were at the Warped Tour date in San Francisco last year. Danny was actually featured on the ONE blog earlier this year, so I was eager to meet him. He is doing a lot of work at his school, where he’ll be a sixth grader next year, to get his classmates involved with ONE. I always like having young volunteers join us – I teach during part of the year, and I like working with youth, so it’s always rewarding to see kids that are so engaged, and it’s double rewarding to know that it was our work on Warped that first got Danny involved with the campaign a year ago.
After giving Danny and Julie an overview of what we’d be doing, I had Brian, part of our touring team, finish the training I started. He came back a few minutes later. ‘Um, so Danny is talking to people about the GNP.” Friends of mine on the tour – bands, other non-profits, etc – were teasing me about engaging in child labor of some sort, but it turns out that Danny really knows his stuff, and before we knew it he was off, coming back every hour or so to hand in sheets and sheets of names and letting me know which lines of people he’d already hit up. We figured he’d gotten close to 200 people to join by the end of the day! Danny is trying to get more students his age involved with ONE in the bay area, so if you are interested in working with him, be sure to send us a message.
The tour is up in Canada this week, so we get a few days to catch our breath, but watch for more updates to come soon.
warped tour
lokahi outreach
one campaign
oxfam
concert outreach
volunteering
youth activism
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