The euphoria lingers! On election night, standing in a diverse crowd of Obama volunteers, I felt a sense of elation that I haven’t felt since I led a team of high school girls to victory long ago and far away. For the past 5 months I had been involved in an historic election and helped elect an intelligent and talented man to the presidency. Our long nightmare with the Bush administration was almost over.
The Maryland Chapter had two priorities for the 2008 election: Barack Obama and Frank Kratovil (Democratic Congressional candidate in MD District 1). We had hundreds of volunteers activated to participate in these campaigns.
Jan Graham (Political Chair for the Eastern Shore group), Janet Schollenberger (Political Chair for the Baltimore group), David Prosten (Political Chair for the Anne Arundel group), Matt Dernoga (student summer intern) and Alana Wase (Chapter Conservation Coordinator) worked together to activate Sierrans to volunteer for Kratovil and, although no-one gave him a chance when he started his campaign, he squeaked out a narrow victory. The Sierra Club, active from the start when few people thought Kratovil had a chance, made a huge difference in that race.
And, since the Maryland Chapter abuts two important swing states –- Virginia and Pennsylvania –- we agreed to “adopt” both of them and work to activate Sierra Club volunteers in both states. Bob Burchard headed up the Pennsylvania outreach and I worked on Virginia. Numerous phone calls were made by MD volunteers to Sierra Club members in both states and we found lots of Sierrans who were already involved and we got lots more to volunteer. The enthusiasm for Obama was palpable.
And then there were the canvassers we launched from the Bethesda, MD Obama office. Starting in July, a team of volunteers (myself included) organized canvassers on the weekends to go to Virginia to register voters, perform voter identification, and ultimately to get out the vote for Obama. We had so many people volunteer (many for the first time ever and many who were Sierra Club members) that we started launching the canvasses from an outdoor location at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. We were sending 500-600 volunteers per weekend –- and many traveled as far as Richmond to do this important work! With this kind of passionate interest all across the country it’s no wonder that Obama won so handily.
So to all the members of the Maryland Chapter who stepped up to help these candidates win their races, THANK YOU. Thank you for your dedication, your time, and your enthusiastic efforts. And I hope you feel the euphoria that I feel at being involved in making this historic election happen.
written after Obama's win in 2008