ONE Wins MySpace Impact Award for Poverty Relief Advocacy
Washington, DC – ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History received the MySpace Impact Award for Poverty Relief Monday for building tremendous grassroots support through the MySpace community for its online advocacy campaign. ONE has a significant presence on MySpace, breaking the 100,000 friends benchmark on its MySpace page in late May.
“ONE knows that Americans – ONE by ONE – can help change the future for millions living around the world and for us here at home; saving lives in the world’s poorest nations increases America’s own security,” said Kimberly Cadena, ONE spokesperson. “On behalf of ONE’s 2.4 million grassroots supporters who truly earned this by the work they are doing on MySpace and elsewhere to save lives around the world, we are honored to accept the Impact Award.”
Members of the ONE Campaign are working in their communities, at concerts, in churches and on MySpace to spread the word that by working together, we can help save lives. ONE supporters encourage America’s leaders to do more in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease, and it is working! Just last week, Congress appropriated over $2 billion more than last year to help those that need it most.
Danny Castro of San Diego created the ONE page on May 10, 2005, and two years later it’s one of the most popular groups on MySpace.com. The page is located at www.myspace.com/theonecampaign.
“Danny created a MySpace presence for ONE that dwarfs that of other campaigns and organizations,” Kimberly Cadena, ONE Campaign spokesperson, said. “He’s grown the group into an active, aware grassroots network that is able to transform its online presence into real world action, which is the definition of success for an advocacy campaign like ONE.”
Castro volunteers his time to run the ONE Campaign’s primary MySpace group, dedicating at least two hours a day to its promotion, maintenance and development. He estimates he’s spent about 1,200 hours working on the site, giving it exceptional care and attention, including sending a personal welcome message to each individual that joins the group.
Castro started the MySpace page two years ago after becoming a fan of U2 and hearing about the ONE Campaign, which U2’s Bono co-founded. Danny is also a member of Long Live Logos, a pop rock band that he describes as a mix between The Killers and Todd Rundgren. His band’s MySpace site can be found at http://www.myspace.com/longlivelogos.
The MySpace Impact Award for Poverty Relief also includes a $10,000 prize.