When President Obama decided to go to Hartford I knew that I had to be there. I had just finished a 12' x 4' banner that I had spent 17 hours making. With all of the media that would be there it was too good an opportunity to pass up to get the message out. Good visuals for television and a timely subject.
My only problem was that it required 3 people to hold it up! What to do? On Monday morning I discovered a Unitarian church less than 1/2 mile from the University of Hartford where President Obama was to speak. Moments after I pulled in the parking lot early Monday morning, the minister Reverend David Johnson, pulled up behind me. I talked with him and told him that I had come all of the way from Michigan and wanted to display my large banner near the Obama event. He told me to use his office as my home base and proceeded to make several phone calls to round up some people to help me.
Two wonderful women, Shirley and Laurie were able to join me and help hold the banner high for the first 4 hours. They were both in their 70-s but had a lot of fortitude and energy.
We drew lots of media attention. About 5 television crews filmed us and best of all the A.P. picked up the story and it ran throughout the country. N.P.R. ran it nationally.
See the links below for the A.P. story. I particularly liked that the A.P. story quoted my banner and me saying (about universal background checks) "Its only going to pass if people speak up."
The story ran in Denver, Boston, Palm Beach, Beaumont Texas, San Antonio, Seattle and many more. It was a truly worthwhile trip. I felt as if I had gotten the message about Universal Background Checks out in a big way.
See the links here:
http://www.denverpost.com/...
http://www.seattlepi.com/...
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/...
http://www.mysanantonio.com/...
http://www.boston.com/...
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/...