Our very own David Broockman, Obama delegate and Obama Works member, has been featured on the front page of BarackObama.com!
David is only 19, but you wouldn’t know it from the length of his resume. Growing up in Texas, he completed over 2,300 hours of community service. He was involved with the Dean and Kerry campaigns in 2004, knocking on doors and making phonecalls from local offices. He later interned for Congressman Lloyd Doggett before moving to Connecticut for school.
It was in Connecticut that David became involved in our campaign through…Obama Works, which does community service as they help to spread Barack Obama’s message of real change.
[BarackObama.com HQ Blog]
On our site, David makes a bit of a cameo in the “Why Obama Works” video here, as he helps clean up New Haven. Congrats, David, on being elected a delegate and being featured on the Obama site–enjoy Denver!
All,
Today, we’re proud to announce Obama Works’ latest project: the Obama Works / Democrats Work National Day of Service!
On September 6th, people across the nation will come together to create positive change, and show the country what a motivated, inspired group of citizens can achieve. Senator Obama once commented that the government must meet the people halfway, that we won’t thrive without a strong investment to our communities by both groups. If either doesn’t live up to their end of the bargain - if government is neglectful, or the people apathetic and disinterested - the project of our communities will fail.
We want to be an example of what it is to be invested in our communities. And we’re asking for your help in doing it. In fact, we need it. As David, Justin and I said in our newsletter this morning, without you, the three of us would just be three guys sweeping up a street corner on September 6th. So, check out the Day of Service page on our site, see if there’s an event planned in your area - and if there’s not, shoot us an email, and we’ll work together to see if we can’t fix that.
Together, we can.
Good news!
Thanks to the generosity of Phillip Bump out of New York, we are proud to report that both obamaworks.com and obamaworks.org now reach our website. Don’t try to email us there just yet, but in a few days that should be working as well.
Don’t worry, though, whyobamaworks.com and .org will still work fine, as will all of our email addresses there.
P.S. Stay tuned either today or tomorrow for a big announcement.
Paul
On July 12, Obama Works of York organized a youth basketball tournament, which they dubbed “Hoops for Hope.” Here’s more from our friend Laura:
Last weekend, Obama Works of York, PA, along with Hoopsters Basketball, hosted a “Hoops for Hope” basketball event showcasing the talents of our local youth, ages five through fourteen.
The intent was to shift our efforts into events that will bring kids off the streets and into organized activities. And the theme of the day, of course, was community service. The message sent out to the seventy youth playing ball and to a large crowd of parents and fans was “Your actions and involvement do matter. Barack Obama needs your vote but he has said all along that one person alone cannot change this country. He is asking us to get involved in our community and together we can make an extraordinary difference.”
Obama Works raised $400 to provide shirts (with the Obama Works logo) to all York players as well as another fifty shirts for giveaways. We brought the sound system, five speakers (two local politicians, two young men involved in community service, and one Obama Fellow) as well as two inspirational rappers to speak and perform between games. The official campaign sent volunteers to register voters. Obama Works provided a sweep team to clean the park during and after the event. An Obama gear salesman was on hand. And Hoopsters provided the teams, referees, and a concession stand.
All in all, this was a great event! We got to watch some incredible ball, interact with the community, make new friends, and introduce the kids to Barack Obama’s messages of hope and change created through public service.
Pretty incredible, if you ask me! A big thanks to all the inspiring folks over in York, PA!
Thought I’d put up a few photos of some of the great work the Oklahoma City Women for Obama are doing for the OKC regional food bank. Courtesy of our friends Gail and Roxanne:
See more photos of their work here!
Just wanted to let you know about the terrific work the York Obama Works folks are up to:
They pulled off a great Sweep and voter registration drive - you can read more about it here, where the York Daily Record covered it.
Nicely done, folks! Together, We Can!
Yours,
David
P.S. Expect more from this blog shortly about a national event!
This wonderful video tells its own story, so I won’t blather on and attempt to do so for it. View and be inspired! We’ve also posted it in our videos section, should you want to pass it on to a friend!
MISSOULA, MONTANA OBAMA WORKS
RIVER-CLEAN UP INAUGURAL EVENT, APRIL 19, 2008
Some 50 volunteers gathered by the banks of the Clark Fork River by
the University of Montana to clean-up a section of river as our first
Obama Works event. Moms and kids clambered over rocks with trash bags
in hands, sorting out recyclables. University students pulled out
trash with vigor, alongside people of all ages—up to 85 years old, all of whom
believe that “community” includes not only people and civic infrastructure,
but also the natural world.
Obama banners fluttered in the cool wind. Missoula mayor John Engen,
who has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president, stopped by with
his dog for a filmed interview. In fact, we have many interviews on
tape that will be put together into a short 4-5 minute film ( a work
in progress). Our voter registration table was a popular stop for
pedestrians crossing the footbridge over the river en route to the
Ki-Yoh Pow-Wow, and the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Native
American center on campus. Our tally of tangible community service for
two hours on the day that marked the start of Earth Week: 22 bags of
litter, 20 bags of recyclables, a large mound of cardboard.
The kick-off Obama Works Palo Alto, CA event was a quite successful book drive. The story below ran in the Palo Alto Daily news.
By Liz Harrelson / Daily News correspondent
Supporters of the Ravenswood School District and presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama rallied for literacy and the candidate’s campaign Saturday, collecting more than 1,300 books for the district.
Amid gleeful cries from children playing in Rinconada Park in Palo Alto and the singing of family songs by local performers, about 50 people turned out supporting “Obama ‘08″ stickers, T-shirts and other political memorabilia. One girl, Amelia Ashlund, 5, painted her own shirt in support of the political candidate.
“Once you raise the level of education, you raise the level of quality of life in a community,” said Ravenswood School District Board Member Larry Moody. (more…)
There was a blog post about Obama Works on barackobama.com yesterday and we are still up on the front page! This is the 3rd time OW has made BO.com, very cool stuff. Check it out here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amyhamblin/gGCVMj
‘Obama Works’ Groups Carry Out Barack’s Message of Change
When undergraduates David and Justin heard Barack’s call to change, they knew that the process of reclaiming and revitalizing our communities must begin now. They wrote a column in their student newspaper in January where they proposed doing service projects — or “Obama Works” — to raise visibility about Barack’s candidacy and demonstrate what Barack has always said — that change comes from the ground-up.
Word about Obama Works began circulating through the My.BarackObama group listservs. Adam, a supporter in Philly, jumped on board and rapidly organized supporters in his area for the first of several street clean-ups.
Soon local chapters of Obama Works were forming on My.BarackObama in cities across the country – from Portland, Oregon to Tulsa, Oklahoma to Cary, North Carolina. The Twin Cities chapter, founded a month ago, boasts 40-plus members who just participated in their first park clean-up, wearing their Obama gear. Jill, chapter co-founder:
It’s ‘Yes, we can,’ not ‘Yes, he can.’ In order for this movement to be successful, we have to move the ball forward, to get people to understand that you need to be the change by pitching in and helping each other and getting to know our neighborhoods. Obama Works projects are a way to do this. It gives you a chance to know your neighbors and the community you’re living in.
