I spent this past Saturday out volunteering with Chuck Pennacchio who is seeking the Democratic nomination for US Senate here in Pennsylvania. We met at about 7.30a in Philly and headed out for a seventeen hour day in Lancaster County, mostly in Lancaster city. I had a shitload of fun going to tons of events and meeting people on the ground out there. And I even got to meet our own jpol along the way.
We started out at Central Market, then it was off to Cafe Aroma Borealis for some lunch and an interview with the Sunday paper. After that it was time for the anti-war rally and march with about 700 activists. Following that, the town hall meeting where Chuck took the mic for a few minutes to thunderous applause. We then canvassed for a couple of hours with a registered Dems neighborhood walk list knocking on doors and dropping off literature as Chuck spoke to just about everyone who was home.
After a quick bite to eat at a sit-down deli, the final event of the night was a local Dem group’s St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance where we chatted it up for one more hour. Phew!
I’ve been volunteering with the campaign for many months now, but this was my first time on the road with Chuck for an entire day like this. Holy shit is it tiring. And at the same time rewarding. We passed out tons of brochures, bumper stickers and buttons. We passed out voter registration forms. We got lots of people to sign up to help out. It was great. There is a great progressive movement in the city of Lancaster revolting against the rest of the rather red county. I think just about everyone we met out there was very receptive to Chuck’s message.
There are longer descriptions with photos of the day’s events with each of the above links and I’ve created a flickr set of a larger set of photos from the day.
Getting involved is the way to go. If there’s someone who inspires you locally, I urge you to get involved in their campaign. There aren’t too many Progressives out there running with the help they need. It certainly doesn’t have to be spending seventeen hours on the road with her/him, but it can be as simple as sending off some letters to the editors of local publications and stuffing envelopes.
