Many of you spent (I hope) a long relaxing weekend. A good many of you attended Labor Day events yesterday; picnics, polictical events and so on. A few of you worked on the muscular dystrophy telethon. I spent the entire weekend at the beach, and I want to tell you about some odinary people who did an extrodinary thing. Follow me below the fold for the full story...
My wife and I spent the entire Labor Day weekend at Hermosa Beach. For those of you who may not be familar with Southern California, Hermosa Beach is one of a string of beach cities south of Los Angeles International Airport. The beach extends for miles, white sand, great surf, warm sun and gentle on-shore breezes. Twice a year, over Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, Hermosa beach holds a festival.
The festivals are great; plenty of food, vendors selling all kinds of homemade crafts, art, and merchandise, bands playing all day. My wife is a glass bead artist, and enters several of these festivals and craft shows across SoCal. Shows like this are fun, but they are also a lot of work, fourteen hour days, most of it on your feet. But at least we make some money for our trouble. Not so the unsung heros I want you to meet.
They were located at the top of the hill, a great spot, as all the folks getting off the shuttle buses had to walk right by them. And they were busy, I mean busy, all day, for three straight days. They were the unsung heros manning the Democratic Action booth. And they were smoking. Monday afternoon I had a chance to talk to Diane, the woman in charge of the booth. I asked her about volunteers. She said they had no shortage of volunteers, as Move-On.org had furnished about forty people to work in shifts for the weekend. This was in addition to their own members.
They sold out of tee-shirts, lawn signs, and Obama buttons each day. They raised a ton of money. Most importantly, they registered almost 250 new democrats! I was able to observe them in action a few times. They were all enthusiastic, professional and highly motivated. I was most impressed with a young man named Michael. Michael is too young to vote, but he was pitching in, talking to people, getting them over to the booth. Helping to create new Democrats.
So to Diane and Michael, and all the rest of you who spent some or all of your weekend at Hermosa Beach, thank you for your efforts, thank you for caring. You are my heros.