Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Break out the tents and tables...

I can’t quite believe Warped Tour is about to start (didn’t it JUST end?), but once again we find ourselves about to get ready for another summer of no sleep, lots of dirt, lots of sun, canned water, long drives and most importantly, the chance to talk to tens of thousand of young people about important social issues. This summer we are excited to be taking the ONE Campaign and Oxfam back out again, and expect to be adding a few more partners in the coming weeks.

Former Intern Brian flew in to Long Beach today to help me get ready for the tour. I was pleased to see that he kept the Bonnaroo mohawk he got the week before. It looks pretty good for a free haircut, I have to admit, and it’ll fit in nice on Warped. As soon as he hit the ground we headed over to the ‘Very Scary Storage Unit’ that contains all of our tour stuff. It looks like a non-profit tabling junkyard, ‘how many tents do we own!’ was Brian’s first response when I opened the door. We managed to get through everything and get loaded up, tomorrow we pick up our tour friend Sumner and head out to Pomona to get set up. We’re pretty excited about the months ahead, and many more updates will be coming soon…








Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Warped Tour is coming!

Warped Tour is finally getting underway this week. We're still finalizing our overall plans for the tour, but we'll for sure be set up and hard at work at the first three California dates of the tour. Friday and Saturday we’ll be in Pomona and Ventura, doing outreach for ONE, Oxfam and the ACLU of Southern California. Sunday we’ll be in lovely San Fran building support for ONE and Oxfam. We’d love to have you join us and help out – volunteers arrive at Warped at 11am where they meet with us, get trained and then spend the day building support for important causes.

If you are interested in helping out, send us a myspace message or an email to volunteer@lokahioutreach.org. We’ll follow up with you at that point, sending you all of the info you need.

Keep watching for more updates to come soon!

Thanks!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Bonnaroo Day #4

Bonnaroo wrapped up pretty well for us, despite the fact that we all breathed in about 20 pounds of dust. We were lucky to not only have two great volunteers come out to join us (ONE organizer Kim and her friend Greg) but we also had several awesome ONE supporters who were at the show offer to give up a few of their hours to help us out. A big thanks to all of you that joined us – it was no small feat given the dust and never ending sun!

It was great to talk with so many people from around the country who had come out for the festival, learning about how they know about ONE, or, why they are interested in the issues we are working on. I am always excited to see how receptive and eager people are to support the campaign – even if they have never heard of it before, almost all of those we talk to are interested in getting involved and really resonate with this idea of helping out the world's poorest. It’s inspiring to see how many people have taken the message of ONE and ran with it – organizing in their communities, schools, and so forth. On one my favorite conversations this weekend, in fact, was with a 7th grader from New Orleans who informed me that he ‘knew all about this stuff’ and had gotten his classmates involved!

Again, a big thanks to everyone that helped us out this weekend – we look forward to hopefully seeing you again this summer!

Gnomes can join too.

Also, we signed up some gnomes. That was pretty cool.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Bonnaroo Day #3

Day three at Bonnaroo started out with priorities first: Brian got his mohawk fixed, as it was, well, at a bit of an angle, which made his whole head seem sort of tilted weird. Version two of his new ‘do turned out much better than version one:

My mohawked boys

Today was great in terms of sign ups. Kim, a local ONE organizer, came out with her friend Greg, so we had a few more hands to help out, plus a few Bonnaroo fans pitched in to help for an hour or so.

Two Bonnaroo fans that volunteered with us for a bit!

By the end of the day we had over 1000 new sign ups – by the end of Sunday we should have quite a few new ONE members, all in all!
Saw part of the Police set, had plans to see the Flaming Lips, but the long day combined with insane dust and dirt everywhere meant that the thought of going back to the hotel and taking a shower won!

Joining ONE







Saturday, June 16, 2007

Bonnaroo Day #2

Day two at Bonnaroo went well – there are four of us here, and we are staggering our day, so two of us go in early and leave a few hours earlier, the other two come in late and close up, and all of us are here for the key hours. Seems to be working – we’re doing even better than we did last year, talking to lots and lots of people.

Bonnaroo fans join the ONE Campaign

It’s been fun talking to everyone, finding out where they are from, learning about how they know about ONE, or, why they are interested in the issues we are working on. It’s nice to have people be so receptive to the campaign – even if they have never heard of it before, 95% of those we talk to are really into getting involved and really resonate with this idea of helping out the world’s poorest – and holding our leaders accountable in doing just that. There are a few ONE staffers and members of the Product Red team here too, for the show – we put them to work when we can!

Joining ONE at Bonnaroo

Former Intern Brian gave into peer pressure and got a mohawk. Since I’m out of the running, the real question is if Dan will join in…

Former Intern Brian gives into peer preasure and also gets a mohawk...

Dan and Brian also got to see David Cross perform last night. We listen to his comedy albums kinda obsessively when we’re on the road, he’s our anti-hero of sorts, so that was a perk for them. Carlos and I had to hold down the booth, so we didn’t get to go, but I saw part of the Black Key’s and Aesop Rock’s set, which was very cool.

Dust and dirt = everywhere!

-Brande








Bonnaroo Day #1

Our first day at Bonnaroo was pretty fun. We had to take a 60 mile detour because highway exists were shut down, we waited in some long lines, signed up lots of people for the ONE Campaign, and Carlos got a mohawk for clean energy. Our photo essay of the day is below:


Brian waits to get into Bonnaroo

We waited in a super long line of cars to get in.

Still waiting...

Then we waited some more.

And yes, still waiting...

And some more.

Carlos starts to canvas other people in line...

Then Carlos took a clipboard and started signing up and explaining ONE people waiting in line in their cars to get in.

Carlos then began to canvas groups of kids on the side of the road while we waited...

Then he signed up bunch of hippy kids on the side of the road that were waiting to get in.

They have horses and trucks at Bonnaroo

Then we saw big horses. This has nothing to do with our story, really, but I felt like it was worth including.

Carlos in the ONE booth

Finally, we got in and were able to set up our booth.

After

We signed up lots of people, then Carlos got a Mohawk.

Bonnaroo fans join ONE

We signed up more people.

Then we went home, but we don’t have a photo of that. We realize this isn't the most exciting photo essay ever, but you get the idea: lots of people, lots of support for ONE, lots of lines, lots of dust, and lots of mohawks.

By days end we’d gotten quite a few people involved, a good start to a long weekend!

More updates soon…