Good Afternoon Fellow Obama Supporters,
It is official I am running for a National At-Large Delegate, I'm hoping you will support me next week at the VA State Convention.
The short version:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkki7KFeeNU
The Long version:My Obama Story:In 2004 when I saw Senator Obama at the Convention I said if that guy ever runs for president I will support him. I also knew I had to know more about him, so I reached out to my peers (I work for AT&T, celebrating my 20 year anniversary this year) in IL and all have them had nothing but good things to say, and my team is very diverse, from young to old, African-American to Polish and all of them loved him. I went out and purchased his book Dreams of my Father, and later received his book The Audacity of Hope. After reading his books I knew then not only would I support him if he made a presidential run, I would work my heart out for him to make sure he was elected.Last August, I jumped in with both feet joining the VA Petition Drive, and let me tell you collecting signatures in Stafford, VA for a Democrat was no easy task, but I was able to get over 100 signatures. Then I volunteered for the DNC fall meeting and after seeing Senator Obama I knew I would have to do more. I met David Plouffe (Senator Obama's campaign manager) and Timo at a reception afterwards, and I was so fired up I signed up to go to Iowa. They told me Iowa was at capacity with volunteers, so to avoid letting the flame go out I headed to SC to canvass and help out with the Oprah Rally, that was the weekend of December 8th, since then I have only been in VA 5 weekends, this past weekend being the 5th weekend. After the Oprah event, I headed to NH the following weekend (12/16) and canvassed in freezing cold weather and a few feet of snow, then tried to make it home before the Nor'easter. Next was GOTV for NH where I worked through election day, then the rest of January every weekend to include MLK holiday I worked in SC to include primary day. The fire to get Senator Obama elected was still burning with great intensity especially after the win in SC. I continued working in Feb 5th states to include NJ and DE. I worked the big event in DE on Sunday and returned for the GOTV that Tuesday. Of course I worked diligently here in VA, then I was off to Ohio, one weekend in Youngstown, OH and then Columbus, OH through election day. The fire was still burning which took me on four trips to PA and brought in several volunteers as I used to live in PA. Of course I couldn't let NC down, so I took my energy there and helped with the opening of the Rocky Mount, NC office and took 3 additional trips down bringing new people to the process. My last trip was to Shepherdstown, WV where I gathered 4 people to create a carload and on May 10th we went there and shared Barack Obama's story and policies. I'm confident we made a difference.Bottom Line:
Okay, I'm taking this volunteering thing to the NEXT LEVEL. I'm heading to Manchester, NH tomorrow. I will be leaving my balmy 46 degrees to go to a place where the weather will be anywhere from 12-20 degrees according to the forecast.
I went and purchased some real winter gear today, I headed to the Gander Outdoor store so I would be prepared. My girlie Timberlands are not going to work in the real winter weather in NH, my leather coat, with a partial shearling lining will not work in NH, and my Isotoners definitely won't do in the canvassing environment. I'm ready though, I went and purchased one of those 3-1 coats, so I can un-layer if necessary, some real winter boots by Columbia meant to handle temperatures -32 degrees and some real clothes meant for the HAWK, and lets not forget my under amour socks, shirt and long johns. I am FIRED UP & READY TO GO! Hopefully I won't burn up, I sometimes have my own personal summers at the oddest times.
I've connected with some of those traveling from the VA area, and we are coming to NH to help make a difference and try to bring more people over to TEAM OBAMA and hopefully the grassroots movement. I'll let you know next week about my time in NH.
Until then, stay FIRED UP & READY TO GO!!!
I'm a little ticked. I just typed almost an entire blog and I hit my touchpad on my computer by accident and it appears it has disappeared into never never land. This one is a paraphrase of the previous one.
I left VA at 5am in the morning, it was cold, raining and 34 degrees. Seven hours later, I was in Columbia, SC and it was 75 degrees. I arrived at Obama HQ in Columbia, SC and everyone there was FIRED UP & READY TO GO! Ready to go canvassing. There were car loads and van loads arriving from Atlanta, GA which is a little less than 4 hours away, fired up and ready to work. There were quite a few of them at least 50+ volunteers from Atlanta. This was my time to get my canvass training in to prepare me for my trip to NH this weekend.
They handed us a map, a script and some literature to hand out. I was blessed to be with an older couple who had done this many times over the years. They shared their knowledge and insights freely, they were wonderful, Mr. & Mrs. Freedman from Lawrenceville, GA. They brought a friend with them, this was her first time out as well, and actually her first time getting into the political arena to volunteer. She was my partner in canvassing, her name was Lauretta and she is a teacher in Conyers, GA. We went to the first few doors together until we became comfortable with the script and our jitters over basically doing what is known in the sales world as a "cold call." The streets were broken down by odd and even addresses so we could remain on the same block, and we divyed up the list and went to work. We must have walked over 3 miles and we met some really interesting people. SC is a very special place, you will find homes where several generations live in one home, or several generations live on the same block. I met a 90 year old woman named Ms. Lena who was not aware that Barack was black and said she prayed she would be here (still living) on Jan. 26th to vote. Then there was Ms. Ophelia who was 86 and told me she worked at the precinct and everyone in her family votes. Her great-grandson Christopher came out to porch and told me I am voting for Obama, but she is a HRC supporter, which she adamantly denied. Then the other voters in the home came to give me their opinion and they basically had a lively debate on the porch. It was awesome to see. Canvassing is fun, a little scary and requires a lot of stamina!
After returning to HQ, CSPAN was blaring in the background and silence went throughout the room when Oprah came on stage in IA. Everyone watched and waited to see how she would do and as you all know she hit a home run! Then it was back to work at HQ, tallying our successes from canvassing and then folding 3000+ shirts that would be sold at Sunday's rally. It may sound like a not so fun thing to do, but I had the opportunity to get to know some of the Obama staffers from IL, there was Kim (a professional - actually worked on the Kerry campaign and worked on Captiol Hill) 32, young, nice and soft spoken, she travels a lot, then there was Miti, I think she was around 30 and then there was the outgoing Daniel aka Thebulldozier, he was the life of the party. These young people talked to me about their experiences, their fund-raising goals, and told me "you're not that old." I loved them instantly, and I enjoyed their company immensely. I later met Meghan who is all of 5'1 who was driving the 17 foot U-Haul. Talk about a site!
Saturday was a full day, I had been up since 2am, and I left HQ around 8:30pm. Bill (my hubby) and I had dinner at a restaurant where the serving size was meant for a 300lb football player. Neither Bill or I were able to put a dent in our food, but it was good! I finally got to bed around 10pm, knowing that Sunday would be a full day.
We arrived at the Stadium around 9:30. There were a least 1000 people in line at that time, although the doors would not be opening until 12:30. I watched as the line continued to get longer and longer, going at least 20 people across and far as the eye can see. We know how that turned out..... Approximately 29,000 showed up to hear our guy.
There was a local band and the band Arrested Development who opened the show and kept everyone entertained while they waited for 2:30 to come. The staff came out with a great idea, why not put all these people to work for the campaign, they had them text them first, then start phone banking to names that had been provided to everyone who entered the stadium. Well, we broke the World Guiness Record for phone banking! How smart was that.
Then finally what we all came for, Michelle came out, looking wonderful, imagine a 6' black Jackie Kennedy, that is just how stylish she is. She is a great speaker. Michelle introduced the woman who needed no introduction Oprah Winfrey, and Ms. Winfrey knocked the ball out the park again. It was clear she was feeling much more comfortable then she had the day before in IA. She walked the stage, put her hands on her hips and connected with each and every one of us. People stood her entire speech, we never sat down from the introduction. There were two things that she said that reached me or moved me, about "getting out of her pew," and I have been saying all along, I am way out of my box in my efforts for this campaign, she also said, "just imagine we would have waited until they said we could." As a bi-racial Puerto Rican/African American that ran deep, and I thank God that those before me didn't wait, and I thank God that Barack is not waiting for someone to say it is his turn.
Barack came out and again the crowd to include me, who has seen him before held on to his every word. He was so passionate, engaging and humorous. I could see people connecting with him, and I heard people say they were now firmly in his court. It was beautiful to see and hear. I am confident SC will stand up for Barack on January 26th.
I'm packed. I have my Obama buttons, stickers, tank tops and shirts, I'm ready. In less than 6 hours I'm heading to SC and am going to be part of HISTORY!!!! For those of you who can't make it, I will take your enthusiasm with me. I feel your energy on the BLOGS, when I call people in NH and I have capsuled it and will let that energy time release over the next two days as we canvass to familiarize people with Barack and at the RALLY.
I'll talk to you on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
I'm having one of those moments when you sense something BIG is going to happen. There is so much anticipation in the air regarding the SC Obama Rally, and I am SO EXCITED that I will be there. Not just for the rally, but to also to WORK to encourage people to come over to our team. We will canvass to get out the vote and educate people about our candidate and where he stands on the issues.
It is such a wonderful feeling to support a candidate you can speak about with such PRIDE, who you KNOW is REAL!!! My prayers and hopes are that we fill that football stadium with 80,000+ people. Imagine that, dream that. I really can imagine it, and it actually takes my breath away.
Let's go change the WORLD, that's what OBAMA said, and that's what I'm trying to do, first by spreading the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ and then trying to get Obama in office.
I'M FIRED UP & READY TO GO GO GO!!!
Being Fired Up & Ready to Go can take a lot out of you, but I'm still excited! I'm so jived about supporting Barack, that I was a little disappointed when I found out they had enough volunteers for IA. Did I give up? Of course not!
I can't give up, because my Christmas present to my family is to "Change The World," by witnessing for Christ and trying to get Barack elected. Just imagine a world where people loved like Christ, and a President who wanted to work with Democrats, Republicans and any other party alike!
So, this weekend I will go to SC and canvass for Barack, and cheer him on at the Obama/Oprah rally. Next weekend I'll work hard in NH to get the vote out and in the meantime, I will continue to phone bank for NH to get others to come and help canvass for Barack and my new thing is trying my hand at fundraising. I am so out of my proverbial box and loving it.
Tonight I called approximately 20 people to help support the NH efforts to get out the vote. I only completed 20 calls because I had the opportunity to engage in conversation with people who wanted to know more about Barack Obama. It was an awesome opportunity to speak with some who tried to end the call quickly but gave me one minute which turned into 10 and 15 minutes. Not all agreed to go out and canvass but many said they would consider it, and took the time to take Sarah's information, and read it back to me. I felt really good about that.
The best part came when one contact I called was no longer with the company but the person who answered the call wanted to know more, much more. We spoke for almost a hour. She asked me every question imaginable from why didn't Barack address race issues head on, I explained that poverty and lack of health insurance is not specific to one race. She explained to me that she thought EXPERIENCE would be hard to overcome for Barack and it was one of the things that concerned her and I reminded her of Baracks time in the Republican Majority State Senate, a job he was elected to. I talked about the difference he made and many of the accomplishments he achieved in that environment and how he will be able to do that as POTUS. I also reminded her that Barack has been in every class, poor, middle class and now upper middle class and how experiencing life in each class gives him a different life experience than many of the other candidates. Lastly we talked about how Barack doesn't visit diversity, his life and his family is filled with diversity and that no other candidate can say that.
Tonight was a good night. I look forward to trying to bring others into the Barack Obama fold.
