The March 18th Obama Event - Denver, CO

Barack Obama came to Denver for a quick rally on March 18th, 2007. It was his first official stop in Denver since announcing his candidacy for president in '08. The Obama event was such a wonderful experience. It marks my first official campaign volunteer event. I met a LOT of excited and motivated people, everyone was buzzing with a positive charge that Obama instills in people. It was such a thrill to be able to work the event and be a part of "something special".

I got to the Sherman Events Center downtown about an hour early (2:45 pm). The volunteer coordinator came out and brought us inside through the back. We had to check in, then met other Denver campaign staff members, and were divided into jobs for teams. I was in a group of about 3 or 4 ladies who were assigned to escorting the VIP's to their designated places. There was quite a lot of electricity and excitement running through everyone involved - the volunteers to every single person that came through those doors!

Unfortunately it did get kind of confusing as the time to let people in came closer. There were a handful of people who were all "in charge" of something and not necessarily a top down organization to who has the final word. So many people were getting orders from many different people, and trying to figure out whose orders superceeded anothers was a very tough thing. But, that didn't diminish the fact that we were all there to see that everything went off well for the Senator.

As I said before my job was to usher in the VIP's to the "Red Room" so that they could have their time with the Senator before the big speech. Well, the building manager (or one of the building staff) started to freak out about fire codes and stuff when he saw how massive the crowd was that was gathering outside the Events Center. He just started letting people rush in and all our "organized" handling of who goes where went out the window. He said he had to do that because it was a fire code violation to have them all out there. I don't know. It blew apart everything we had set up to do. With people rushing in like crazy, none of the VIP's were getting ushered anywhere of importance. So plans changed to an after-event VIP meeting with the Senator. My job then was pretty much a "Vanna White" thing -- pointing my fingers to the staircase and elevators and saying - "Upstairs to the 2nd Floor..... Upstairs to the 2nd Floor...... Upstairs...." (you get the idea).

One very cool thing did happen though. I did get to meet Pat Waak and usher her up to the event personally before the doors opened (she's the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party and basically one of the main reasons Denver is hosting the DNC in '08 - she is such a wonderful person!). So it was great to be able to meet her and talk to her briefly. Now whenever I see her I can say -- "Hi Pat, remember me? I met you at the March 18th Obama Event..." Wow, never thought I'd be able to say that to some like Pat Waak.... ha ha! I also saw Senator Terrence Carrol (recognized him from our day at the legislature when we sat in on the death penalty hearings -- he chaired that committee) and also think I saw Sen. Ken Gordon come in too (he's the one who co-sponsored the anti-war rally with our church's Peace, Liberty, and Justice Task Force in January).

We "ushered" in the massive crowd from 4 to after 5:30. We got to go upstairs once they shut the doors. I was in the very back of the auditorium (tried to get a shot of the Senator on the news cameras, but didn't get to see much). Being short has it's significant drawbacks! :)

Baracks speech was amazing!!!! He is so right on the target with issues -- health care, energy, education, Iraq, corruption in Washington (one of my favorite parts of his speech was when he said something to the effect of -- They say I may not have enough experience in Washington to be a good President. Well, I say I've been there long enough to know that things have got to change! I've been a community organizer long enough to know that ordinary people can do extra-ordinary things if they're given an opportunity. I've been a civil rights lawyer long enough to know that fairness, justice, and equality have to be fought for everyday and not taken for granted. I've been teaching Constitutional Law long enough to actually respect the constitution! --

Go Barack!

He makes you feel like you really do have the power to make a difference!

Right after the speech we were supposed to go back down to the Red Room to have our time to meet Sen. Obama. But when I got there I was the cutoff person ("You'll be the first of group 2" - the volunteer coordinator said). At that point, I just had a weird feeling that it wouldn't work out. But since I was right by the door it was my "job" to help another volunteer guard the door and not let anyone into the room -- period -- nothing. Crazy stuff started happening and some high dollar donors (like the ones we were originally supposed to usher in before the event) were complaining that they didn't get to go in and meet the Senator. There was a big mix up of who got in -- who didn't. There were some heated tempers -- but I did my job and didn't open the door. While people are arguing and trying to get into the room (I'm still guarding the door with one other volunteer)... an official campaign "dude" came out and said -- "Thanks for coming, thanks for all your help, but the Senator has already left and will not be meeting with any more people at this time."

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. But, in the wider scope of things, it's not about me.

I'm pretty sure that the local politicians got to meet him. And I'm pretty sure that about 10 volunteers and 10 high dollar donors got to meet him, but the other 20+ high dollar donors and the other 30 volunteers didn't get to. It was a little disappointing, but I just told myself that I would have volunteered anyway -- even if there wasn't a promise to meet him. It's not Barack's fault either. The event was thrown into a bit of disarray - which I'm told by others who had previous campaign experience, is the norm.

After all, I really just wanted to be part of the campaign. And it was such a good speech and such a great thing to see all that excitement and hope in one room! You should have seen the crowd. They were amazing! I didn't expect that many people. The paper said over 1500, the event guru (one of them anyway) said about 2000 people were let in! It was a crazy fun day. Can't wait to do it again :)

I did take a couple of pictures from the waaaaaay back place I was at. They aren't good but when I get a chance I'll share them here on the blog. There is video online of most of Obama's speech from that day too. Use the link at the top of this blog post (the title).

When you get to the Fox news page, click on the first small thumbnail under the Sidebar - Related Items - VIDEOS on the right hand side...

Enjoy!