One Campaign Official Offers Support for CRC Project
February 11, 2008, Grand Rapids, Mich. - An official with the One Campaign, the global anti-poverty program backed by the rock star Bono, says his organization strongly supports the Christian Reformed Church's Sea to Sea Bike Tour 2008.
The One Campaign, which has drawn high-profile politicians as well as celebrities to its cause, sees the Sea to Sea tour as a great way to raise awareness of and support for the fight against extreme global poverty -- the same issue for which the One Campaign was founded nearly four years ago.
"We are certainly in one camp and appreciate the Christian Reformed Church taking on this issue," said Mark Brinkmoeller, senior director of policy and coalition development for the One Campaign, which is based in Washington D.C.
Brinkmoeller was in Grand Rapids recently to learn more about the bike tour and consider how the One Campaign can help draw attention to it. He also wanted to discuss ways the One Campaign and the Micah Challenge-a CRC-backed global advocacy campaign - can work together. In addition, CRC officials discussed with Brinkmoeller the possibility of including One Campaign literature and material in Sunday celebrations that will take place across the United States and Canada as part of the Sea to Sea tour.
"It would be nice if you could build a connection to Sea to Sea. That could help interest build and bring in other churches in support of the riders and this cause," Mike Bruinooge, the CRC's director of ministry planning, told Brinkmoeller.
The One Campaign was originally founded in 2004 by 11 non-profit and humanitarian organizations with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All of the current front-running presidential candidates in both parties have endorsed the One Campaign and Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate leader, is a strong proponent of the group.
Although the CRC does not as a denomination officially support the One Campaign, the church and its agencies are very much in line with its focus and many of its goals, said Peter VanderMeulen, the CRC's director of social justice.
VanderMeulen said he is pleased that the One Campaign supports Sea to Sea because the organization made famous by Bono and actors Brad Pitt and Matt Damon "helps to set the table and raise the awareness level" for the need for churches and other organizations to band together to fight poverty and disease around the world. Until recently, VanderMeulen was co-chair for the Micah Challenge in the United States. The Micah Challenge is a global Christian campaign that aims to help leaders of rich and poor countries cut global poverty in half by 2015.
The Micah Challenge, as well as the One Campaign, are working to cut the rate of extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education and environmental stability; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health, and combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases around the world.
The Sea to Sea tour, says VanderMeulen, is one of the practical ways in which the CRC can help the Micah Challenge meet these goals.
One of the largest bike tours ever to cross the U.S., Sea to Sea hopes to raise $1.5 million to help fight global poverty. The tour will start in Seattle, Wash. on June 30 and end nine weeks and 3,750 miles (6,035 kilometres) later on Aug. 30 in Jersey City, N.J. It is the second time that the denomination has mounted a tour such as this.
More than 100 riders took part in the Sea to Sea 2005 Bike Tour that crossed Canada. Currently, 211 riders are expected to participate this summer - some going the entire distance while others will pedal a portion.
Joining the CRC will be riders from the Reformed Church in America, which has been drawn to the project because of its goal to alleviate poverty. The RCA is promoting the tour to its congregations.
Half of the money raised by RCA cyclists will be added to the tour's overall fundraising and the rest will be used by the RCA in its own poverty-alleviation programs. Partners Worldwide, a CRC-affiliated business development ministry, is also sponsoring the event and will receive some of the funds.
Sea to Sea organizers say they hope to raise funds to support, among other things, an HIV/AIDS program in Nigeria, an anti-gang chaplaincy program in Guatemala, and loans for people in low-income communities to invest in small businesses.
For more information on Sea to Sea,
visit: http://www.crcna.org/pages/sea_front.cfm
-Chris Meehan, CRC Communications
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Chris Meehan News and Media Relations Christian Reformed Church in North America www.crcna.org