Oct 28, 2008 11:17 pm US/Pacific
Students Launch 'Six Degrees' Prop. 1A Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
Although the message may have not yet made it to the ears of Kevin Bacon, the California Public Interest Research Group's goal of spreading the "Yes on Proposition 1A" message using the six-degrees-of-separation concept Tuesday reached hundreds of thousands of people statewide.
According to CALPIRG spokeswoman Emily Rusch, the campaign was using the concept of "six degrees of separation" to forward a message in support of Proposition 1A, a $19.9 billion bond measure on the November ballot to fund the first construction phase of a high-speed rail system connecting the San Francisco Transbay Terminal to Los Angeles Union Station.
The students were aiming to contact as many people as possible by e-mails, text messages and social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
The "six degrees" idea, that everyone is connected within six degrees, is often linked to actor Kevin Bacon because of a popular trivia game known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."
Events were scheduled on 15 campuses throughout the state on Tuesday to spread awareness about the proposition. In the Bay Area, advocates gathered at University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University and University of California, Santa Cruz.
Statewide, 166,014 e-mails were sent, 42,452 people were contacted on Facebook, 4,925 messages were sent by text message and there were 1,810 face-to-face conversations by 5 p.m., according to CALPIRG.
By that time 13,397 e-mails were sent, 4,284 contacts were made by Facebook, 765 text messages were sent and 950 face-to-face conversations were conducted within the Bay Area.
"I contacted everyone I know," UC-Berkeley senior Jenn Engstrom said. "My friends, my parents, my co-workers. I haven't gotten to Kevin Bacon yet but I'm educating thousands about the importance of high-speed rail and building support. It's working because I know people are forwarding the message so I will keep encouraging everyone I know to keep forwarding this on."
Rusch acknowledged the struggling economy may affect voters' decisions in the upcoming election, but said the proposition would boost California's economy by creating jobs, and is also important for the environment.
"We don't have the money to buy TV commercials to educate people about Prop. 1A, but as students we do come from all different backgrounds and communities and can use peer-to-peer tactics to personally educate hundreds of thousands of Californians," UC-Berkeley freshman Gwen von Klan said. "If it reaches Kevin Bacon, then we can be pretty sure we've gotten the word out across the state."
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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