Slideshow:
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t277/barkway/Obama/?action=view¤t=27f46956.pbw
(DON"T KNOW WHY, BUT SITE NO LONGER ALLOWS EMBEDDING OF SLIDESHOWS)
Across the country, volunteers held Unite for Change events today. Two such events took place in the small housing development of Rock Creek in Cooper City, FL. The first was at the home of Steve Wall, a former Republican turned Obama supporter. There were approximately 17 people, each of whom took a turn introducing themselves and explaining why they had come. The group went on to have a lively discussion of the issues, the candidates, issues specific to Florida and voter registration. There was a mix of young and old, former Republicans , Independents and Democrats. There were former Hillary voters and those who had not voted in the state's Primary. The Mayor of Cooper City Debbie Eisinger addressed the gathering and answered questions.
Later in the day, there was another Unite for Change event in Rock Creek, this time at the home of Marty and Caryl Shuham. The Shuhams also hosted the introduction of the Obama Fellow for Cooper City, Eduardo Lara, a young Hispanic man from Los Angeles who will be in the area with the other Fellows flown in from across the country to help organize volunteers. Mr. Lara is an adjunct Professor from Pepperdine University who graduated from George Washington University and participated in the Teach for America Program.
There were approximately 31 people at this event who were surprisingly more subdued than those at the earlier event. They listened as Mr. Lara introduced himself and told his personal story as Fellows were trained to do. Mr. Lara had seen Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Convention and was impressed with his knowledge and demeanor. His grandfather had helped to raise him and being interested in politics, discussed the issues of the day that he had read in the newspaper with Mr. Lara. Shortly before he was to join the Fellowship program, Mr. Lara's grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. Even as he lay in the hospital, he would ask his grandson how Obama was doing. Shortly before he died, he told each of his grandchildren to follow through on their commitments and dreams. Though Mr. Lara had to request an extension on joining the Fellows to attend his grandfather's funeral, he followed through because of his grandfather's dying request.
The crowd was shown a brief video from the campaign which described why Obama is running for office and depicted volunteers from across the country explaining why they were volunteering. One older woman in the video explained that "for the first time in her life, she felt compelled to do something like this." Another woman, a young mother, choked back tears as she explained why she was doing this for her kids' futures.
The Mayor of Cooper City addressed this second gathering as well and stressed the importance of grassroots organizing. After a brief answer and question period where there were few questions, Mr. Lara closed by saying, "let's have our desires be put forth into action."
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