JCOSTER
ONE love, blood, life
U2 front man Bono recalls as a young boy in Ireland the first impression he had of the United States was a man walking on the moon.
“I thought, ‘What can’t these Americans do when they put their minds to it? It’s incredible,’” he said at a 2005 U2 concert in Chicago.
As the international spokesperson for the ONE Campaign, Bono called upon First World nations to muster the resolve employed during the Space Race and other remarkable human feats to help end extreme poverty by 2015.
“We’re asking world leaders to do something extraordinary, not put a man on the moon, more like put mankind back on Earth,” said TIME magazine’s 2005 Person of the Year. “We have the technology, resources and know-how to end extreme poverty — and I believe we have the will.”
Well, a group of Wilmington College students certainly possess that will.
Recently, WC was ranked first among 1,438 participating colleges and universities in the ONE Campus Challenge. College chapters earn points for activities ranging from recruiting new members and gaining campus support to lobbying elected officials.
A half dozen chapter members shared the ONE Campaign story Jan. 25 with the College’s Board of Trustees, who were so moved by the sincerity of their presentation they formally declared Wilmington College as a “ONE Campus.”
That action, which was on the heels of Mayor David Raizk proclaiming Wilmington a “ONE City,” helped WC vault from third place past Brandeis and Sacred Heart (N.Y.) universities into the lead in the competition.
The group explained ONE evolved from Jubilee 2000, a movement encouraging developed nations to forgive Third World debt with the advent of the new millennium. While ONE is focusing its efforts on eradicating extreme poverty, it also has specified such development goals as improving education, promoting gender equality, combating HIV-AIDS, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health as means to that end.
Mary Katheryn Hilberg, chair of the trustees’ Student Life Committee, said, “This is a group of students who took it upon themselves that they were going to make a difference.”
Indeed, last fall the College’s ONE chapter gained formal recognition as a campus organization. They spearheaded the Global Day of Action Against Poverty during Homecoming in October and fostered campus involvement in Third World Dodgeball, the Oxfam Hunger Banquet and The Tunnel, each of which were geared toward poverty awareness.
They launched a Web page and sold ONE wristbands and T-shirts emblazoned with “I’d Rather End Poverty Than Do My Homework.” Senior Lindsay Storck assured the amused trustees, “Don’t worry, we’re committed to both.”
They also got another campus group, ETC (Educational Theatre Company) to produce two “commercials” on poverty awareness, which were posted for the world to view on YouTube.
All these and additional events and activities wracked up points in the national competition and, as often occurs, one of the most challenging things they encountered ended up being especially gratifying.
Each week, the collegiate chapters are presented with a new challenge and, this fall, they were called upon to contact their elected government officials. Suddenly, the students weren’t confronting the familiar faces of their friends, classmates and families — they were challenged to step outside their normal comfort zones.
Tara Lydy, group adviser and director of the Center for Service and Civic Engagement, witnessed a wonderful transformation of the students’ self-confidence as they called members of state government and the U.S. Congress.
“The moment each of them hung up the phone after their first call, they stood taller,” she said. “It was such a wonderful moment.”
State representative Dave Daniels (R-86th District) even agreed to meet personally with the students. Also, eight members participated in ONE’s “On the Record” challenge in which they contacted the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to solicit their support and get their responses to the poverty issue on the record.
Junior Mariah Fulton personally called the offices of all 15 candidates.
“After the first call, it seemed so easy,” she said. Fulton was especially excited about helping to start a ONE chapter after spending two months last summer as a volunteer in Kyrgyzstan, where she witnessed extreme poverty first-hand in the second poorest country in the Euro-Asia region.
“People are understanding poverty is a big issue throughout the world,” she said. “I know I am making a difference by taking a stand.”
Senior Bri Rogers had a ONE Birthday Party at El Dorado Mexican Restaurant in Wilmington, where she stood and spoke to diners about the plight of impoverished persons.
By the end of the fall semester, Wilmington was ranked well into the top 100 collegiate chapters, which earned president April Bentley, a senior, an expenses-paid trip to the ONE Campus Challenge Power 100 Summit in Washington D.C. There she met other student leaders in the campaign and heard speakers like Jenna Bush and Newt Gingrich.
“It was so motivating and refreshing,” Bentley said. “In speaking with my peers from other schools, I realized the support we have on our campus is amazing.”
Lydy is proud of all the nascent organization has accomplished and recalls playing the voice mail from a 4 a.m. call to her cell phone.
“They called when they learned WC was number one in the nation — they were so excited,” she said. “They work on this campaign every day. It’s challenging and motivating our students to make a difference.”
While realizing their efforts represent a ripple in what they hope will become a global wave, freshman Milyda Cass is excited the group’s activism is realizing results.
“Students have played a crucial role in every great movement in American history,” she said.
Once the ONE Campus Campaign concludes March 17, the top 10 schools each will receive a $1,000 grant for poverty awareness projects and the number one college will be rewarded with a musical performance by a yet-unannounced major act.
For the Wilmington students, that conjures up images of Bono and U2 performing in WC’s Hugh G. Heiland Theatre or Fred Raizk Arena.
“This is our moon shot,” Bono said. “It’s up to us. We’re going to make extreme poverty history — that’s what’s fallen upon us to do. “I believe in 50 years when they look back upon this moment, they’ll say, ‘There were some people who said it’s not OK to have a child dying for lack of a 20-cent immunization. It’s not OK to have a child dying for a lack of food in his belly.’
“That’s not OK anymore.”
A major act...
I wonder who that could be? 
“I thought, ‘What can’t these Americans do when they put their minds to it? It’s incredible,’” he said at a 2005 U2 concert in Chicago.
As the international spokesperson for the ONE Campaign, Bono called upon First World nations to muster the resolve employed during the Space Race and other remarkable human feats to help end extreme poverty by 2015.
“We’re asking world leaders to do something extraordinary, not put a man on the moon, more like put mankind back on Earth,” said TIME magazine’s 2005 Person of the Year. “We have the technology, resources and know-how to end extreme poverty — and I believe we have the will.”
Well, a group of Wilmington College students certainly possess that will.
Recently, WC was ranked first among 1,438 participating colleges and universities in the ONE Campus Challenge. College chapters earn points for activities ranging from recruiting new members and gaining campus support to lobbying elected officials.
A half dozen chapter members shared the ONE Campaign story Jan. 25 with the College’s Board of Trustees, who were so moved by the sincerity of their presentation they formally declared Wilmington College as a “ONE Campus.”
That action, which was on the heels of Mayor David Raizk proclaiming Wilmington a “ONE City,” helped WC vault from third place past Brandeis and Sacred Heart (N.Y.) universities into the lead in the competition.
The group explained ONE evolved from Jubilee 2000, a movement encouraging developed nations to forgive Third World debt with the advent of the new millennium. While ONE is focusing its efforts on eradicating extreme poverty, it also has specified such development goals as improving education, promoting gender equality, combating HIV-AIDS, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health as means to that end.
Mary Katheryn Hilberg, chair of the trustees’ Student Life Committee, said, “This is a group of students who took it upon themselves that they were going to make a difference.”
Indeed, last fall the College’s ONE chapter gained formal recognition as a campus organization. They spearheaded the Global Day of Action Against Poverty during Homecoming in October and fostered campus involvement in Third World Dodgeball, the Oxfam Hunger Banquet and The Tunnel, each of which were geared toward poverty awareness.
They launched a Web page and sold ONE wristbands and T-shirts emblazoned with “I’d Rather End Poverty Than Do My Homework.” Senior Lindsay Storck assured the amused trustees, “Don’t worry, we’re committed to both.”
They also got another campus group, ETC (Educational Theatre Company) to produce two “commercials” on poverty awareness, which were posted for the world to view on YouTube.
All these and additional events and activities wracked up points in the national competition and, as often occurs, one of the most challenging things they encountered ended up being especially gratifying.
Each week, the collegiate chapters are presented with a new challenge and, this fall, they were called upon to contact their elected government officials. Suddenly, the students weren’t confronting the familiar faces of their friends, classmates and families — they were challenged to step outside their normal comfort zones.
Tara Lydy, group adviser and director of the Center for Service and Civic Engagement, witnessed a wonderful transformation of the students’ self-confidence as they called members of state government and the U.S. Congress.
“The moment each of them hung up the phone after their first call, they stood taller,” she said. “It was such a wonderful moment.”
State representative Dave Daniels (R-86th District) even agreed to meet personally with the students. Also, eight members participated in ONE’s “On the Record” challenge in which they contacted the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to solicit their support and get their responses to the poverty issue on the record.
Junior Mariah Fulton personally called the offices of all 15 candidates.
“After the first call, it seemed so easy,” she said. Fulton was especially excited about helping to start a ONE chapter after spending two months last summer as a volunteer in Kyrgyzstan, where she witnessed extreme poverty first-hand in the second poorest country in the Euro-Asia region.
“People are understanding poverty is a big issue throughout the world,” she said. “I know I am making a difference by taking a stand.”
Senior Bri Rogers had a ONE Birthday Party at El Dorado Mexican Restaurant in Wilmington, where she stood and spoke to diners about the plight of impoverished persons.
By the end of the fall semester, Wilmington was ranked well into the top 100 collegiate chapters, which earned president April Bentley, a senior, an expenses-paid trip to the ONE Campus Challenge Power 100 Summit in Washington D.C. There she met other student leaders in the campaign and heard speakers like Jenna Bush and Newt Gingrich.
“It was so motivating and refreshing,” Bentley said. “In speaking with my peers from other schools, I realized the support we have on our campus is amazing.”
Lydy is proud of all the nascent organization has accomplished and recalls playing the voice mail from a 4 a.m. call to her cell phone.
“They called when they learned WC was number one in the nation — they were so excited,” she said. “They work on this campaign every day. It’s challenging and motivating our students to make a difference.”
While realizing their efforts represent a ripple in what they hope will become a global wave, freshman Milyda Cass is excited the group’s activism is realizing results.
“Students have played a crucial role in every great movement in American history,” she said.
Once the ONE Campus Campaign concludes March 17, the top 10 schools each will receive a $1,000 grant for poverty awareness projects and the number one college will be rewarded with a musical performance by a yet-unannounced major act.
For the Wilmington students, that conjures up images of Bono and U2 performing in WC’s Hugh G. Heiland Theatre or Fred Raizk Arena.
“This is our moon shot,” Bono said. “It’s up to us. We’re going to make extreme poverty history — that’s what’s fallen upon us to do. “I believe in 50 years when they look back upon this moment, they’ll say, ‘There were some people who said it’s not OK to have a child dying for lack of a 20-cent immunization. It’s not OK to have a child dying for a lack of food in his belly.’
“That’s not OK anymore.”
A major act...
I wonder who that could be? 
