I started my day in Manassis for a couple hours but I had to go to Leesburg and work on behalf of my for for her boss at the Obama Rally. 10,000 people were expected and I was told to get there at 1, the security screening would open at 3 and the event would start at 5:30. As we amelessly wondered around at first, trying to get people to fill out volunteer forms I felt it was a slight waste of time. These people were here for Obama… not to Volunteer… but regardless. I buddied up with some guy and we started directing human traffic at around 1:30… the event was held at a Good sized park but a lot of it was taken up by Secret Service, News, and so on… and the people were beginning to line up and it was getting messy, backed up into the Parking lot and spilling over to the streets. So we started directing traffic and getting people into as dense a line as possible without frustrating people. At this time, we had no idea still how many people were there. I realized I can’t tell 1,000 people from 10,000 people and just started creating a snaking line, that ran almost 13 rows deep vertically, and by 4 PM we had started another snaking line 6 rows deep horizontally right above these people because the lines woudln’t stop growing.
As you can imagine, the two of us got put in charge of getting the people in and lines up and secret service was everywhere, news camera’s were floating around, and some volunteers just handing out and others working like crazy — but that’s just life. by 5PM I was exhausted, my voice was crackly, at times, I was amusing people while they waited and the rest of the time, guiding people to a never ending line. At one point (this is during the amusing the bored line waiters) a guy asks me, you obviously have done this before… you are keeping everyone amused. I didn’t even realize it… I was getting women bring me food and water, girls giving me their animal crackers while I cracked jokes about getting closer to other Obama supporters because that’s what its going to take to win on Nov 4th, talking to them about Obama, and go knows whatever else… I think at one point i lectured someone that vegetarians should not eat animal crackers… some got it, most didn’t! I was delirious.
Shira, Lyzz’s Boss, who I had been sent out to help, asked me for an odd favor around 5PM. Her balcberry had run out of juice and she needed me to get to her car (Which was sitting in the middle of some serious secret service security) and get her phone charged. Get to the car, charge the phone for 10 min, and get back before Obama starts… if Obama starts during this thing, you can abort and come in to listen to Obama. Seemed simple enough. I soon realized why she outsourced this seemingly simple task… there was no way into her car unless you somehow snuck into the area guarded by the secret service and State Police. So I hop a fence, and another and walk with authority… around a few TV trucks, past a few trees, prius keys in hand, I head into the park and just trying to find my way though. I even asked a cop at one point for some guidence, he points me down a small hill, and as I am rushing to get this thing charged and get back before Obama arrives, I see a Motorcade arrive and a few people huddled up about 20 yards from me. I act official, put the keys into my pocket and walk to the group and a black SUV stops, Obama Walks out…
I heard his speech from a far, I never got the phone charged for Shira, but she understood 🙂 and as I watched people listen to his speech I wondered how is it that so many people who are so different can like one candidate for so many reasons. There were kids actually jumping up and down yelling out Obama… 6 year old kids!!! How is that even a target demographic? the grandma in a wheel chair, to the dad with 4 kids, the veiled women, the guy with a cowboy hat and sweats, high school kids who had gotten parental approval to miss 1/2 the day of school (I’m not lying), to the English Visitors who happened to be nearby and took the opportunity to come out and wait… its absolutely amazing.
35K people later — the event was a hit and he’s up in VA by 8% as of today!
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