Greetings ,

You ask, "What kind of organization is ‘One Arm Raised’?"

Good question. I'm the President and Founder of "One Arm Raised" and I'm not sure if even I know the answer. I'll try and explain as best I can.

 
I've been attending Wurstfest in New Braunfels with friends and family for the past 19 years and have always had fun dancing to the German music, eating the food, and drinking beer. Several years ago I noticed a man standing in the crowd talking with friends and holding his arm up. He held his arm up in the air for 10 minutes straight for no apparent reason (as far as I could tell).

 
I found this very amusing!

The next year at Wurstfest I did this same thing. As I stood in the crowd talking with friends and family, I held my arm up in the air. I continued this for two hours. As one arm would tire, I would switch arms. The response from strangers was hilarious! People would come up to me and high-five me, they would stand next to me and hold their arm up and engage in conversation, or they would just stare, laugh and take bets among their friends on just what the heck I was doing.

The following year at Wurstfest I had convinced my friends and family to raise their arm with me for an hour and everyone had a blast!

The third year I officially named our group "One Arm Raised", made ID badges for our members, and we passed out 140 commemorative 2001 Wurstfest stickers to those that joined us. The stickers lasted 15 minutes.

The next year we had larger ID badges, our official membership was at 30+, and we handed out 1,000 Wurstfest 2002 commemorative "We came, we drank, we raised one arm" stickers. Despite the dreary weather on November 2nd, all those that attended had a great time and wanted 2,500 stickers for next year’s Wurstfest.

And this happens year after year.

Bottom line, we all like to drink beer and have fun at Wurstfest. Drinking beer and raising one arm for an extended period of time may sound strange but it has turned out to be a unique way to have fun and meet people.

Can I add you to our “One Arm Raised” e-mailing list, or does this sound a little too far out?

See you this year to "raise one arm". We start at 9 PM sharp! 

Cordially,

mike(at symbol)onearmraised.com

2010