The Love Alliance Newsletter #26
August 8, 2009

We are entering our last month of summer and are proud to say this continues to be an extremely successful summer for The Love Alliance.  Welcome to everyone who is new to The Love Alliance community.  We are excited for you to get involved with everything we are doing to combat injustice in the world.

LAST MONTH

HAPPENINGS
We attended quite a few music festivals during the month of July.  First we attended Lifest in Wisconsin.  It was our first time in Wisconsin.  We’ve noticed the further mid-west we head the more people we encounter that have not heard of many of the issues we represent.  Because of this we are excited to have been a part of Lifest.  We are proud to say that there is a group that should be forming in Appleton, WI shortly.  They are going to be on the front end of educating a good deal of their community on the needs of the world and our ability to make a difference towards them.  Next we drove about 23 hours back home for a break and attended the Vans Warped Tour Florida dates.  To be honest these were some of the toughest touring dates we had ever done as far as heat, energy, etc.  But any of the toughness we experienced was definitely countered by countless individuals excited to get involved with what we are doing.  Next we took the long drive up to New Hampshire for Soulfest.  It was great to see old supporters and meet new ones.  It was also fantastic to connect with Not For Sale, a non-profit that works to identify trafficking within communities around the world and to eradicate it.  From Soulfest we drove over to Buffalo, NY for Kingdom Bound Festival.  We had an overwhelming response at this festival from individuals and groups wanting to get deeply involved with what we are doing.  At this festival we were able to speak with an inspiring woman who had been homeless for two years and has worked very hard to regain her home and daughter.  It reminded us how important it is to view each homeless person as an individual with unique needs as opposed to a grouped together cause.  We also met a large group of students from an Ontario high school that are planning a “Love Alliance Day” this next school year.  They are all going to wear their shirts on a set day, pass out educational flyers, stickers and ultimately work to get their school active in making a difference towards injustice in the world.  

We had a whopping 10 group applications come in this past month!  These applications were from all over.  We met a lot of Canadian’s at Soulfest and Kingdombound who are interested in starting groups in their area.  Our groups are a simple way for individuals to work together in their communities to impact injustice.  If you would like to start a Love Alliance group in your area simply click here to fill out our group application.

The first half of the tour we distributed over 25,000 educational flyers.  We have not even finished the second half and we have already distributed an additional 15,000 flyers raising our summer total to 40,000.  We are excited at how individuals are using these as tools to educate people in really unique ways.  We talked to a friend/therapist at Kingdombound who asked us for a stack of flyers to use with her art therapy group at a local NY State mental hospital.  If you are interested in using our educational flyers as a tool to educate your community on social justice issues and their ability to make a difference you can pick them up at cost in our webstore.  If you are having a big event and will need a large amount of flyers you can email us for bulk flyers at info@thelovealliance.net.

ACTION PROJECT
Last months Action Project was to donate blood.  We at The Love Alliance donated and were proud to hear of all those of you who donated along side us.  We know many of you overcame your fear of needles and blood to join us in doing this project.  This was a free way for us to literally save someone’s life.  We learned that not only does it save others lives but medical reports have also recently stated that donating blood also has medical benefits for those donating.  We are proud of each and every on of you who donated blood last month.  If you never got a chance to donate last month it is not too late, join us in saving lives through donating life saving blood.  

THIS MONTH

HAPPENINGS
We are now on a weeklong break.  We will be heading to PA for Purple Door next week (August 14-15) for our final festival of the summer.  We have some big ways you can volunteer at Purple Door if you are attending.  Simply email us back here to find out how you can get involved.    
 As we stated we are ending our summer tour and will be heading back to our base in central Florida.  We will be getting back to the day to day of the organization.  We can finally get caught up on all of the emails sent from so many of you who want to get involved in what we are doing.  Thank you for extending our office some grace this summer.  As you can see we become a bit stretched in the summer months.  We will also get to start focusing on raising funds for our curriculum.  We are excited for big things in the fall.

It looks like we are starting off our fall with a festival.  We will tentatively be attending Revelation Generation Festival in Frenchtown, NJ.  If you are attending the festival we could really use your help.  Our summer intern Candice will be leaving the nest to run this festival booth for us on her own.  We would love for her to have a strong team of volunteers to help.  If you are attending this festival and would like to volunteer with us email Action@thelovealliance.net.

ACTION PROJECT
Now to announce this month's Action Project.  This month we would like to do two simple things to Remember the Poor.  First we are reviving an Action Project one of you came up with last August as due to the world wide recession it is more needed this year than any time in the recent past. August is a big month for kids as they are all starting to go back to school.  With going back-to-school comes back-to-school shopping.  For most kids this is one of the few fun things about finishing up their summer break.  Unfortunately, due to finances, there are a large number of children in school today that are not able to purchase all of the supplies their school is requesting.  This brings a lot of shame to the kids as they have to tell their teacher and ultimately makes doing their work much more difficult.  This month we will be giving school supplies to schools so that they can distribute them to children in need.  Education plays a huge part in breaking the cycle of poverty. Many young people in poverty see these obstacles such as buying supplies and become discouraged.  Let’s as a community encourage these young people in their education to help ensure they have a bright future.  So here is what you can do:  Collect school supplies this month such as pens, pencils, markers, crayons, notebooks, notebook paper and donate them to your local school to be distributed to the children who are most in need.  You may want to call the school and request a school supply list and work from there.  Also don’t be the only one in your group to donate supplies this month.  Be sure to encourage your friends and family to take part in this project as well.  We are excited to see everyone impact children’s lives and self esteem in such a great way through seemingly simple means.  If you have any questions about this month’s Action Project email Action@thelovealliance.net.

Next we would like to send some love to the children that The Love Alliance community sponsors in Haiti.  We would love it if you would write a letter or draw a picture for either or both of our sponsored children.  Click here to learn more about the children we sponsor.  Send all letters or pictures via email to Action@thelovealliance.net or snail mail: The Love Alliance, P.O. Box 111431, Palm Bay, FL 32911.