I’m headed to Miami tomorrow for the BCS National Championship Game and couldn’t resist the opportunity to post this great article about Florida quarterback Tim Tebow (yes, full disclosure, I am a proud Gator). Tim makes good on and off the field. The Heisman winning quarterback is the first to both rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in a season, making him a exceptional role model for many sports fans. More importantly though, the son of Christian missionaries, he balances athletics with more than his share of charity work. Here’s more from ESPN:

There are plenty of athletes who talk the pious talk. Plenty of athletes who write scripture on their eye black the way Tebow does or thank God after victories. But how many have walked the walk like Tebow — walked it into the prisons, into the slums of the Philippines, into the hearts of people in need of a role model? How many, at age 21, have done as much work on behalf of those less fortunate?

“There are people in the public arena who are playing games — and I’m not talking about football games,” said Tebow’s father, Bob. “He’s not playing games. There’s a lot of phony people in the world. He genuinely cares about people. You have to care about people to go to the hospital and visit the sick on your own.

Recently the whole Gator team participated in the Gator Charity Challenge in Gainesville. You can takepart with Uplifting Athletes or any of the non-profits the Gators picked to support : American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, Children’s Miracle Network, March of Dimes and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Now that’s something to cheer about – that and winning the national championship! Go Gators!

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Aside from pro-life demonstrations that happened daily, the biggest issue looming over the convention was immigration.

On Thursday, a large group (accounts seem to vary as to how many, with some estimates at 3000, some at 700) of protesters descended on LoDo, shutting down transit and tying up traffic. I was able to catch up with a group of high school students, many of whom have parents that are immigrants. They are calling for Immigration reform that includes more than just enforcement. Here’s what they had to say:

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One of the best panels I sat in on was Viral Videos and Social Networks: How Campaigning has Changed Forever, moderated by Fred Goldring, executive producer of the Yes We Can video and former Chairman of Rock the Vote. Will.I.Am himself was there to talk about the genesis of Yes we Can project along with Facebook’s Chris Kelly, Marc Morgenstern, Executive Director of Declare Yourself, and Max Berstein from Common Sense NMS Political Director.

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The most interesting party was definitely the Unconventional ‘08 VIP party at the Manifest Hope gallery. The party was hosted by MoveOn.org, Shephard Fairey and San Fran Mayor Gavin Newsom and his lovely wife Jen. Shephard’s art was on display, along with both known and new contemporary artists, including painters, sculptors and street artists, all of whom created pieces that celebrate the progressive, grassroots energy of the Obama campaign. Here is a video of some of the artists talking about their inspiration, as well as the importance of a candidate who has a strong arts and education policy.

Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Zooey Deschanel (She and Him), Matthew Caws (Nada Surf) and Jonathan Rice all performed in acoustic rounds. They sounded beyond great. It was a bit of a throw back to 70’s folk with a little bit of contemporary irony. My favorite song was Love Hurts dedicated to Barack and Hillary.

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Myspace also went all out for their party, bringing in hip hop artist Nelly. He brought the house down with his song Believe. Cyndi Lauper watched from the VIP section. In all honesty, I was more excited to see her!! We know the Myspace folks well from our work together on Darfur Now and also on the I am voting for campaign we did for Chicago 10. Our mutual partner Declare Yourself was also at the convention on a panel with Will.I.Am (more on that later).

Nelly:

Cyndi Lauper:

Related:
TakePart at the DNC

I’m not going to lie – I haven’t been invited to this many parties in a week since college. I simply can’t do it anymore and ended up missing several. You find yourself trying to be in several places at once, not able to enjoy where you are. Kinda not the point. However, there were some standouts!

For instance the DoSomething party with Moby was a blast.

Mostly because I was able to catch up with another personal hero of mine, Darfur Now’s Adam Sterling. Adam’s work passing Sudan divestment legislation nationwide earned him a nomination in DoSomething’s Teen Choice awards. Unfortunately, he didn’t win (despite the numerous creative ways I personally had found to vote). As a finalist he will be featured on Doritos bags though!!! Hopefully this will result in a whole new level of awareness for the Sudan Divestment Task Force, of which he is the director, and its umbrella organization The Genocide Intervention Network.

Adam Sterling and DoSomething CEO Nancy Lupin:

Related:

TakePart at the DNC

Walking the club floors, you run into a wide variety of people, some of whom I was able to get on camera and some not (did I mention the technology black hole). It was both exciting and a little nuts. My basic approach was stand still long enough and people will literally walk right into you. For example:

The Daily Show’s Ron Riggle and former Cali Gov. Gray Davis – do you think Davis knows who he’s talking to?? Wish I could hear!

Hillary after the jump! Read more!

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Ugh, I’m totally delinquent in posting these updates. I fell into a technology black hole, followed soon after by a mental black hole brought on by intense sensory overload. I’m not complaining AT ALL but I can’t remember the last time I had so much to do in one week!! Let me try to catch you up. Wendy asked about the lay of the land so let me walk you through my day on the convention floor.
To get in you have to pass through the outer security perimeter. There is constant activity in LoDo but when you approach the perimeter it gets really quite - it’s almost a little eerie.

Once at the convention, the madness starts with the lines. There are always lines to get in and depending on how backed up security is it can take up to an hour. I was lucky and bypassed this particular part of the process, but that will have to be my secret for now.

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Just ran into Samantha Power – foreign policy expert, human rights advocate and one of my personal heroes.

Samantha was one of the first journalists in the US to talk about Darfur and has worked tirelessly to raise awareness about it. She is often credited with bringing Obama up to speed on the issue – if you notice he mentions it often now. It’s hard to believe sometimes that this is still going on. Actually, it’s heartbreaking. takepart with our Darfur Now campaign.

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David Orr went on to moderate the next panel titled, Climate Problems and Solutions; Local to Global with Bill Becker , Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project; Robert Kennedy Jr, Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance; and Michelle Wyman, Executive Director for the US Office of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.

Darryl Hannah, who looked stunning in person, introduced the panel. She was extremely well versed on the subject and seemed to speak from the heart when introducing the panel.

But, it was Robert Kennedy Jr. who stole the show. Wow. I don’t know if it’s his lineage, good looks or political savvy but he was all that and more. He made a strong argument for using federal funds to build out infrastructure to transmit clean energy. There is enough energy in the barren northwest to power the whole country, we just lack the means to get it where it needs to go. He also talked about the importance of creating a free market driven by clean energy where innovators are incentivized and inefficiency is punished. So instead of trillion dollar subsidies to oil companies, the wind farmer in Texas would finally be styling!

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