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(Matt) Hi, I'm Matt Mazzei, founder of the Rainbow Delegation, and this is the fourth
installment
of the "State Of The Delegation"
I thought this time I would introduce to you
uh... Ben Cummings. He is our most valued volunteer and the reason why
many of you are getting
wristbands a couple weeks after requesting them rather than a couple of months
after requesting them. So, thank you to Ben. (Ben) I basically do all the work that Matt
doesn't want to do. (Matt) Someone's got to do it, right?
So, anyway if
you have a few moments, he is the other admin on the FaceBook page, so please feel
free to send a message thanking him for all the hard work he does and tell him how
much you appreciate him.
(Ben) I will accept your friend request if you uh ask. (Matt) That's if you want to.
(Matt) Ah, anyway. Update. Okay.
(Matt) Seventy five thousand wristbands now have been given to people in sixty five
countries.
(Matt) So first and foremost I'd like to thank
all of the sponsors who have stepped up
and have helped to make that possible. Without all of you
we couldn't be doing this at all. So thank you so much.
(Ben) And we also would really like to thank everyone who has been wearing their wristbands.
That visual sign of support is what this is all about and anyone out there may
being seen that and it may be the sort of thing that just makes their day. (Matt) Yes so thank
you so much. And we know it makes a lot of people's days because we get emals
every day from people telling us how much of a difference it's making
and everyone has a story
and we not only love to hear them but we were thinking that'd it would be really
encouraging for all of you to hear each other stories.
And so
uh... what we were thinking is if you could make a video
uh... basically saying who you are, where you're from,
why you wear your wristband and/or story you have, or the difference you see the wristband
wristband making
and then upload that on YouTube, we're going to take all of those and make a compilation
video basically that would
kind of give and overview of what the Rainbow Delegation is about and share some of
those stories with each other.
And so,
basically, a good example of that is going to be a video that was already
submitted by Ed Cortez from Peru.
And so we're going to show that to you now.
(Ed) Hi. My name
is Ed Cortez. I'm 23 years old
and I'm from Lima, Peru.
I use my wristband
because it's a way to support
a lot of people around the world.
who has to be hide because they are not accepted by this society.
Safe and supportive
in Lima, Peru.
(Matt) Now Ed's video is a perfect example of the type of video that we need.
And so there are a few basic components. The first is "who you are" so, if Ben was doing this it would
be... (Ben) Ben Cummings. (Matt) where you're from.
(Ben) Fresno California.
(Matt) and then why you wear your wristbands or the difference you see it making or
maybe a little story that you have about wearing your wristband (just forget that for now)
and then at the very end, the important thing is that you hold up the wristband,
like such,
and say "safe and supportive in..
Fresno, California or Lima, Peru. Or wherever it is that you're from.
And another video that I actually wanted to share with all of you is from Andrew.
Now Andrew is actually one of the young people who
inspired me to start this, this movement last year.
And so if you've ever heard me speak about the Rainbow Delegation or heard
any of the backstory, ah, you know about the young people who came out to me and
really showed me the need for this sort of thing.
And so I just wanted to share with you a video that Andrew
uh... put together
telling his story.
uh... so.. We can have that for you now.
(Andrew) The Rainbow Delegation helped me from a very negative state of mind.
I was incredibly in the closet. I was extremely insecure with myself or hardly
ever told anyone about my "dark secret"
And I was trying to accept that I'd never be happy because I'd never be able
to come out of the closet because I'm from a very conservative part of the country.
and uh...
I felt lost. I felt like I couldn't express who I was because the majority
of the population at home is not exposed to homosexuality.
Now the school year started
and I saw very many of my friends wearing these wristbands. And I thought
okay, this is the exact reason why I wasn't out of the closet because I thought
all these people weren't accepting of
homosexuality. And since then things have really looked up.
I've become incredibly secure with who I am, even though
I have been bullied, only a little bit, not too much, it doesn't matter because I am who
I am, and I'm incredibly secure with that thank you to the Rainbow Delegation.
Safe and supportive in Clovis, California.
(Ben) as you saw, Andrew has a really compelling story and we know that there are countless
stories like that out there.
So we want you guys to upload your videos so everyone can see how many safe and
supportive individuals there are around the world. (Matt) Yes and there's actually an
extra incentive.
So out of the videos that you upload,
and the ones that we take and we use,
one person is actually going to win a prize and that prize is actually
this wristband.
And so we have tens of thousands of wristbands coming through the
headquarters and every once in awhile there is one that something happens to
it and it doesn't quite look like the rest. But this one actually looks like a
sunrise and it's super cool.
And so I thought, I actually wore this for about a month or two because I thought it was
really neat, but I think I'm going to offer it up as a prize. I don't know if it's me
having worn it actually makes it more or less valuable.
but... It's the same price as every other wristband, which is free. So, um..
all you have to do is you have to upload the video on YouTube,
and email
uh... us a link.
Ok? Remember the components. Who you are. Where you're from. Why you wear your wristband.
and then "Safe and Supportive in...
city and country, or city and state.
Make sure that the lighting is keeping you visible
and as much as possible, um, please have the wristband visible.
And say "Rainbow Delegation"
ah, throughout the video. That'd be awesome.
uh...
That's basically it for now. There's some changes happening with the website and
how the requests are gonna be processed in the future, which will hopefully allow
us to get the wristbands out faster to everyone
and handle an increase in requests.
And so I'm looking forward to that. Also I wanted to remind everyone that its only
through the generous sponsorship of individuals
that this is able to happen.
And so please, if you're someone that can sponsor wristbands, or shipping, Please
consider doing so because it's only through that that this is possible.
Thank you so much for all of your support.
And thank you for wearing your wristband daily.