one more thing......a thank you!

I cant believe I almost forgot to thank all the amazing people that have shown us such overwhelming hospitality over the last week:

Bryan Funk- what a way to start. thank you so much and a big shout out to the whole crew with "Ending Genocide around the World"
Carina and Tami- thanks for setting up an amazing day and introducing us to wonderful people. "Portland, Maine ruined my life."
Laura Rogers-thank you for opening up your school to us, it was great to see so many interested people
Jackie Lewis and Stand- thank you for such an amazing and receptive forum to present our film and all the yummy treats. You are doing fantastic things.
The Morrow family and the crew from Noble High School- thank you for the support during the day and the delicious dinner at night. The wonderful friendships and tasty brownie sundaes. we hope to get a picture of the banner soon...
Kay Beach- we are forever sorry about not being able to attend North Eastern. thank you for all your hard work, we have heard so many wonderful things about you from people along the way.
Wes Carter- thank you for showing us a great time and helping pull off a great screening.
Mick Chaundhary- Thank you so much for your time, we know you are super busy and are thankful you made time for us.

If you are not mentioned here, we haven't met you yet but cant wait to meet you. Look at the calendar on the website, see when we will be around and let us know how we can get in touch with you. Help us with the Rescue.

We are just a rag- tag bunch of misfits trying to end a war

This week has been an epic whirlwind of people, screenings, merch and much more. We drove across the country on very little sleep, ran in to many interesting characters along the way too. For instance the weigh station you read about, the guy at the gas station in Texas with shorts and a doxen under his arm who asked "what's invisible chicken?" and the man in Tennessee that asked for money because his fiance stole his credit card.
This week found us in New Hampshire, Maine and now Mass. We have been privileged enough to present at Plymouth State University, Maine College of Art, Oyster River High School, University of New Hampshire, Gordon College, Harvard University and today we will be at Clark University.
We very unhappily had to cancel our North Eastern screening due to HORRIBLE weather but we were unbelievably impressed by the North Eastern turn out at our Harvard screening. Thank you so much for your commitment. We have been having some success with TRI sign ups but not enough, we really need your help and your $3 a week. If you read this and are interested go to our website www.invisiblechildren.com. We really appreciate it. We had a very amazing encounter on Wednesday night at our UNH screening, there we met Charles, a former abducted child soldier of the LRA. He was so brave and shared his story with us and all the people that turned out to the screening. We all had renewed spirit in Invisible Children after speaking with him. He loves what we are doing and stands by us.
The weeks to come looks to be full of potential. we will be here in the Boston area for the most part. Boston is a really cool city, I like it alot. It is a big city with a nice old feel.
I would like to give a shout out to all the amazing people we have met so far in this adventure. It is all of you that are really the voices of Invisible Children. We are nothing without the committed individuals like your selves. we come in to your lives, schools, Churches and turn your life up side down as now you are part of the solution for a 23 year long war. We wouldn't do it if we thought you couldn't handle it. We know it is not about us Roadies, it is about the people. You use your time, talent and money everyday to help us get closer to the rescue of these child soldiers and an end to the longest running war in Africa. With that I know you all will have checked the website this week but in case you haven't, "The Rescue" has been released on line. You can watch it there, tell everyone you know to watch it. We must get this message out to as many people as possible by April 25th. The event on April 25th is going to change the world and change the definition of our generation. It is said in the movie," we have no enemies in this, just apathy and indifference." Don't be the one that lets that statement ring true, go for it. do all you can do, that is all we can ask and on March 25th, have a house party, show everyone "the official rescue plan". Then get everyone to the event nearest you on April 25th. This is your mission and you have to accept it.
much love and peace,
The Roadies

Proof of how tired I am, coffee is not good enough.

Wednesday the 11^th of February will officially go down in history as the longest day ever, the day before the launch of the Invisible Children Spring 2009 International Tour. After leaving the office at 430 in the morning we headed home for 3 hours sleep, packing the van and then heading to Mt. Soledad. We had a great morning with all the groups and the staff, saying our goodbyes and wishing everyone the best of luck in ending this war. We headed to Ocean Beach to pick up our team computer and get our last burrito until May. From there we got on to the free way and started our trip east.

We had made a team goal of taking a picture at every state sign, not super complicated right? WRONG! We see the state sign for Arizona and are very excited as it will be the first one. We pull off in to the weight station and get out (with East Coast) to take our photo, we are all super hyped, jumped in the vans and head out. This is where the trouble comes in, we cant get out with out going through the weight station, no big deal, we pull up, Tyler rolls down his window and the guy asks him “what are you?” after a slight bit of confusion Tyler tells him about IC. Weight station guys goes “Uganda huh? I’m gonna need to see some registration…” So we pull over, I (Brit) run in with the rego and over hear the people talking, weight station guy goes to the other people in the office, “F-ing kids probably don’t even know where Uganda’s at.” All and all they let us go and we were on our way to Yuma, OH Yuma. We stopped at a strip mall and got dinner where Jo-leah ran in to a person she went to high school with and then Sarah got creeped on by a Starbucks guy. We got the heck out of Yuma and on the road to Tucson we ran in to Deep South! They pulled up next to us on the I-20 and we said we would meet them in Tucson. The stage was set for a fun night until Deep South broke down. We couldn’t find an exit and had to keep going to keep on pace anyways. It was sad but had to happen. Through the night we managed to drive right through Arizona and New Mexico. We got in the Texas, where the time warp started. Texas seemed never to end, until it did. I have never felt happier then when I saw the sign for Louisiana. It was marvelous. We headed through Mississippi and wound up finally getting to the beautiful Chaplin home. We met up with East Coast, had a wonderful shower and an absolutely delicious dinner of Cuban food. We unfortunately were not able to stay too long as we needed to keep on truckin’.

We headed up north through Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Baltimore, New Jersey and New York. Oh, I forgot we stopped in Delaware!!! We were very lucky to have a wonderful night at the Schuck family home. Anna’s family was great. They cooked us a great meal, let us do laundry, and just get the things done we needed to do. We left Delaware at 3 am and headed straight to Plymouth, New Hampshire. We met up with our first contact, the incomparable Bryan Funk and his AMAZING “Eliminate Genocide around the World” group. They showed us such amazing hospitality. We had food all day and I am writing you now from our hotel room at the Red Roof Inn. The standards have defiantly been set high. It was a great first screening with 16 TRI sign ups and heaps in merch sales. I know this is probably incoherent as it has been written over the past couple days but that is a blog for you. I am going to try and get some sleep tonight for the first time in a while. Tomorrow we are off to Maine which should be awesome. I send all my love to all the other teams and hope everyone is safe and loving life. My new tour motto is that of New Hampshire “Live Free or Die.”

The Roadies are coming!!!

The final countdown to the road has started. We leave here in 3 sleeps! We are packing up our lives here in normally sunny but currently rainy San Diego and heading to the cold of New England. We are excited to get on the road and start sharing the amazing new media with you. "The Rescue: of Kony's child soldiers" is one of Invisible Children's most influential films yet. Please check out our website www.invisiblechildren.com to see a current listing of screenings in your area. We can't wait to meet you all and END THIS WAR!

Roadies Revealed!

Introducing your Spring 2009 New England Roadies!!!

This is our lovely regional assistant, Bethany Blysma.
We love her, and you should too.

John Kelly!

Tyler Dunning!

Brit Chreptyk!

Anna Schuck!


6 days til we leave for tour and we can't wait to see all of your lovely faces!

APRIL 25th is THE RESCUE!

Next week we launch Invisible Children's largest most important tour yet. It is all in the lead up to a major event on April 25th. The event is call "THE RESCUE: of Kony's child soldiers." We are putting out a big ask this time, we are asking people to give up there time to end a war and bring these children out of the bush. In the past Invisible Children's BIG events have been so successful because they were honest. The Global Night Commute asked people to simulate the night commuting of the children of Northern Uganda, Displace me asked people to simulate the lives of internally displaced people in the IDP camps. With this event we are asking the same thing, we are asking you to step outside your comfort zone and for one night live the life of the children of East Africa. The GNC and Displace Me both yielded phenomenal results, with in one year of the GNC there was an end to night commuting in Northern Uganda, with in one year of Displace Me, over 800,000 people returned home from the IDP camps. Not that we are saying that we at Invisible Children made these things happen but we did have a part. Our part is in rallying voices. We bring the people and the people bring change. The situation has escalated again, every time you open the news papers you see the new atrocities being committed by the Lord's Resistance Army. They are on the move, they are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they are spreading in to the Central African Republic. The people that live in these countries are not used to living the constant threat of a rebel faction. Nor are the people used to having their children abducted and enslaved to fight in a war that they have no interest or connection in.
This is where you come in, be there on April 25th, go to www.invisiblechildren.com and read all the updates as they come, tell EVERYBODY you know, look out for the official event details that will be launched on March 25th.
Remember this could be the moment that defines our generation as one that took up action in the face of injustice.
If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem. BE THERE.

You know you gotta help me out!!! wohoa

Hey everybody and anybody... so do you have a floor, a couch, a closet, a back yard??? Do you live in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Ottawa or Montreal? Do you want to feed or house a team of Roadies? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions please get a hold of us. Feel free to call us at 619-562-2799.

In the beginning there was......

50 people, one house, 3 bathrooms... you do the math. As a Roadie our lives are not simple, but they are amazing. With that said I am pleased to introduce you to the New England Roadie team for the Spring 2009 Invisible Children International Tour, Tyler Dunning (Montana), John Kelly (New York), Anna Schuck (Delaware) and Brit Chreptyk (British Columbia).
We all come from very different places, times, contexts and much more but we are here because our heart is in the same place. That place is with the children of Northern Uganda.
Invisible Children is a non-profit, media based, global awareness initiative based out of San Diego, California. We are in the process of fighting to end Africa's longest running war.
How are we going to do this? By reaching out to the youth of the world and appealing to their innate characteristics of idealism, creativity and sacrifice.
We invite you to watch the World Tour Launch video :