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
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