Back on the road with Warped!

Warped fan signing up!
Originally uploaded by Brande Jackson

Brian and I got to hit the road a few weeks back now, doing work on the California dates of the VANs Warped Tour. In addition to building support for our friends at ONE and Oxfam, we also registered voters and spread the word about our newest partner, Face AIDS, an amazing student led organization doing work to fight AIDS in Africa. Our Face AIDS volunteers in Mountain View, in fact, were quite adept at adopting the Warped Tour aesthetic, as you can see by the evidence below:



I've always loved working Warped - this was our 7th year out in some capacity - it seems to always remind me of why I got into doing this work to start with. Talking to people, especially so many young people, about these issues, and knowing that they might not have gotten informed or inspired otherwise is incredibly rewarding. I always go back to thinking about how music was what politicized me in a lot of ways, and how cool it is that someone could go to a show and literally have their life changed because they talk to one of our volunteers - as I always tell our volunteers, it might seem like what we are doing is simple, but it makes a big impact!

By the end of the week Brian and I had gotten several thousand people signed up to learn more and (hopefully!) get involved. A big thanks to all of you who came out to help, and do keep checking back here for updates and more ways you can get involved!

If you are not yet on our volunteer list, by the way, please be sure to get signed up for ways you can be involved.

Thanks!
-Brande