Every week for the next six weeks we’re going to introduce you to our new Roadies who have grown on us like our very own Chia Pet. This week meet Mountain West and Texas…

Team: Mountain West

Our team is made up of four radtastic people. The starting line up is Seth Williams. A Garden Gnome possessor and San Diego local, he has been on staff with IC since October 2005. He spent three months in Uganda teaching photography and getting rocked at football (soccer) by the Acholi warriors.

Next up standing at five foot six…JESSICA ABT!!!!! She reigns from Orlando Florida where she gets to see the sunset and rise over the ocean everyday. After graduating from beautiful Palm Beach Atlantic University (where she was once furiously attacked by a shark, just kidding, or are we?), Jess spent three months wondering what she was going to do with her life while working as a high school camp counselor in Spring Hill, Michigan. Then, she saw Invisible Children...one month later she was San Diego bound.

Next up (well mostly up side down, she’s a gymnast) is Jenni Mayberry. She’s a true Georgia peach minus the southern drawl. She saw Invisible Children and went and permanently branded herself with an Africa tattoo and a changed heart. She filled out the application and BAM here she is.

Last and probably coolest/tallest is Ryan Bolitho. Ryan’s a Colorado local, representin’ Glenwood Springs. He moved to San Diego and started volunteering in March 2006 entering all those GNC cards you filled out (please write a little more legibly next time!) and was eventually offered a job running the warehouse with his brother Mike. Ryan spent a month in Uganda this summer snacking on beans and rice, building stuff Africa style, and experiencing Uganda first hand. Then he returned home to resume work in the IC warehouse and then conquer the road with the Mountain West Road Crew.

Team Mountain West is going to be visiting you in Arizona then to New Mexico, on to Colorado, over to Utah, up through Idaho, further up to Montana, down to Wyoming, and back to Colorado (cause it’s the best, love Ryan.) to finish up in Denver. If you live in our region, have friends in our region, have once been to our region, or thought about someone or something in our region we need you to help us! We want to come and visit you, sing in your shower, pet your dog, dance with you, challenge you to a hand-stand contest, show the film to your friends, eat your food and sleep on your couch…so why are you waiting? CALL US!!!

Jessica’s region – Arizona – jabt@invisiblechildren.com
Seth’s regions – Utah and Idaho – seth@invisiblechildren.com
Jenni’s regions – NM, MT, WY, and Colorado Springs – jmayberry@invisiblechildren.com
Ryan’s regions – Colorado minus Colorado Springs – ryan@invisiblechildren.com
Phone - 619-631-0362

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Hello World and Texans from all around the amazing state of Texas! Allow us to introduce ourselves! We're the Texas road crew - one of 12 amazing teams, getting ready to embark on the 2007 National Tour to a city near you!

Team: Texas

Our team is still in the works – we are waiting for our two amazing guys to complete our team of four, so in the meantime meet the two wonderful ladies of Team Texas!

First off, we have the beautiful Jenna Stauffer straight from Lincoln, Nebraska. Once you get a glimpse of this girl's contagious smile, you'll never forget it. It was only 8 months ago that she was at a mission conference in Nashville when she saw Invisible Children for the first time. Deeply touched and moved, she knew she had to "do more than just watch". Juggling classes for her junior year and doing fundraisers and screenings, this girl went full force for Invisible Children. After hosting last year's Middle America team at her home on IC's first National Tour, she made the leap this last May to move to San Diego to volunteer with Invisible Children. She spent the summer helping out in the warehouse. When she applied to be a roadie in August and was accepted, she made the call back home to Nebraska to say she wouldn't be coming back anytime soon but instead enrolling in a local San Diego JC for a semester and hitting the road in January this second tour. On an average day you can find Jenna hanging out at the beach, curling up with a good book or going places with her friends. Her passions include anything to do with these amazing kids, traveling, and meeting new people.

Second, we have Rachel Burney, a native of Rancho Cucamonga, California (yes that's a real place!) and spent the last year in south Orange County, attending what she proclaims as "the greatest school on earth" – The Paul Mitchell School. The past five years of her life have been spent in the bush of Africa with another non profit, AIDS Orphans and Street Children. She also claims to have misplaced her heart somewhere within her first visit – taken by the amazing children of various countries throughout the African continent. When Rachel first saw Invisible Children a year ago, it was only natural that she fell in love with those faces on screen too; her life then become consumed with doing Invisible Children screenings and benefits. After returning from Africa this last March, it weighed so heavily on her heart to become more involved within Invisible Children. After applying to be a roadie and being accepted, she put her education at Paul Mitchell on hold and moved down to San Diego. Her biggest goal on tour this year: booking every Paul Mitchell School on all 12 teams' routes and getting into as many high schools in the Texas region as possible! Her greatest passions in life are her faith, Africa, her family/friends, doing hair, traveling and meeting new people.

Texas...we aren't messing with you! Look out because we're coming in full force to a school/church/college near you! However this will not be possible without...well, YOU!!! We need your help ASAP! If you are in or have anything to do with Texas, we are holding you responsible to give us your names, your friends names, your mom's friend's names, and anyone who can help book a screening and help us spread the word of these amazing children!!!!

If you are a high school student and can get us an assembly at your high school...you are our official heroes!!!

CALL US!!! 619-631-0362 and ask for Jenna or Rachel!

If you are in the Houston, El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo, contact jstauffer@invisiblechildren.com

If you are in the San Antonio, Austin or Dallas/Ft Worth area contact rburney@invisiblechildren.com

Anywhere else in Texas, contact sean@invisiblechildren.com

You can also contact us on my space at www.myspace.com/ictexasroadcrew

We can't wait to meet ya'll!!!!