First and foremost, I completed my goal to donate the maximum amount of money for this General Election. That objective was met on Thursday morning (10/23) before the midnight deadline. That same day, a female friend of mine e-mailed me to let me know that she too had contributed the maximum amount. How exciting to be able to help in this manner. The Obama-Biden Campaign is the first time I have donated such a substantive amount to a political race. I am happy to say that I am blessed enough to be able to provide this magnitude of financial support. All Americans cannot say that.
Via e-mails and MySpace, I also invited as well as challenged my Friends to match any of my incremental contributions. These have ranged from $100 to my most recent final contribution of $700. I have no way of knowing if my MySpace Friends actually took my challenge unless they alert me. In any event, I hope someone was motivated by me to contribute before Thursday's midnight deadline.
Secondly, I was able to return to the Shaker Square office also on Thursday where I made 38 phone calls. More people said they were going to Vote Early and volunteered for GOTV! I am not sure why none of my recent Canvassing or Phonebanking Contacts are listed on my profile page now. Hopefully, they will be updated soon. At any rate, I am keeping my own records.
While at the Shaker Square office, I also sold more of my MoveOn.org Obama buttons I purchased a while back. My goal is to sell all 90 of the buttons for a total of $100. All of my sale money will then go back into GOTV. For instance, I would like to purchase some fruit that I can contribute to the food reserves on hand for our GOTV volunteers at our area's Staging Location. The actual place has not been announced yet. Soon!
Before leaving the Shaker Square office, I was able to get more door hangers for Saturday's Canvassing. I also took an Obama/Biden lawn sign. Enroute back to my apartment, I stopped at my Cleveland family home to place it on the lawn. It looks great!
Inspired, just yesterday, I printed out an Obama sign that I put on the outside of my apartment door. It looks great too. Maybe other tenants will follow my lead. I also encouraged one of the maintenance men who had fixed a bathroom leak for me yesterday to Vote Early. He said he and some family members were probably going Sunday. Since he has to do other work for me on Monday, he expressed interest in hearing about becoming a GOTV Volunteer. I was happy that he was so receptive. As they instructed us during the GOTV training: "Talk to at least one person every day about the Obama Campaign for Change." Mission accomplished all week!
Last but not least, from home I was able to work all week on my plan to get more local students involved. At least Bedford High School personnel finally returned my calls and e-mails yesterday. The bad news is that due to legalities, Bedford High cannot openly ask any of their student body to participate during GOTV. At least I have a few names of young people I encountered during last week's Canvassing. In other words, I still have some high school contacts I can use.
Today I will be completing more Canvassing in the neighborhood. Hopefully, I will be able to encourage more young people to become GOTV volunteers? I hope and pray that I can. The reward for Canvassing today is a Happy Hour at the 20/20 Martini Cafe and Lounge in the Flats. I have never been to that esatblishment before, but it already sounds like fun! R & R is always welcome after Canvassing!
In sum, I feel like my week's activities show progress. I made some excellent strides towards helping the Obama Campaign for Change achieve its ultimate goal on 11/4. That will not be long now. We are almost into GOTV, the final 7 days! Yes, We Can!
By Canvassing throughout Bedford Heights, I am learning more about my community. As I have often told my team leader, Gayle, I basically go where I need to go otherwise. Oftentimes that is to Cleveland and other nearby suburbs, such as Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, Maple Heights, and Warrensville Heights. In other words, i am not unlike many other people who often travel around the same radius out of habit.
So what did my new partner and I accomplish on Saturday? First of all, we had to get quickly acquainted. Larry (a female) is actually a resident of Warrensville Heights who has done political volunteering before, but not as part of our team until yesterday. As for her name, her parents had expected 2 maile twins. Even after she arrived, they decided to still keep the 2 male names; her sibling died at a young age. In short, we became fast friends. I found out that she is retired and will be 71 on her next birthday.
That last fact truly surprised me because she is really fit. I drove us out to our area, mainly Sunset Drive. The houses were well-tended and the area was quite spacious. In fact, the addresses on our list were spread out and the driveways were very long. In other words, she and I walked a "country mile." Since the street mainly has no sidewalks, we were able to find a kind neighbor who allowed me to leave my car in her driveway free of charge. Such caring people do exist after all
Because of the expanse of the walk, we only knocked on 19 doors. That took us close to at least 2 hours. With the initial orientation about our destinations and the traveling time, we basically used up our 3 hour shift. We stopped because my partner had another appointment close at hand. Considering how far we had walked, I was ready to call it a day too.
So what did we really accomplish? First of all, we put doorhangers on all of the doors where no one was home. That was all except for 3 houses. Our shift started at about 10:30AM so we concluded that people were either already out or just not willing to answer their doors. Later, Gayle told me that the people who did not come to their doors will be contacted again before 11/3.
In any event, I was very happy because i got to talk to a Senior and a Junior who both attend Bedford High School. These articulate young ladies both said they would like to help, especially on 11/3 when we need a cadre of Runners. One of the girls said she had at least 5 other friends who can help.
Earlier in the week, I had already brainstormed the idea to call their school to get Seniors to earn Community Service hours while helping us. But talking to these 2 young ladies really motivated me to make my calls to Bedford High early next week. My main goal is to get an army of Runners who are young enough to not get tired easily. We really need teenagers who are young enough yet responsible enough to do a good job for the Ohio Obama Campaign for Change. Wish me luck on signing up student volunteers from Bedford High. I already feel that God is ready to make that goal a reality.
Since I am a Christian, I believe that hard work is not enough. Prayer and contemplation play a large part in this election, life in general. So I am working hard as well as looking to God for guidance. Lord, we really need you the remaining 15 days! I know we can count on you!
