Everybody is spinning like crazy about health care. Sue Thorn, OFA staffer in Wheeling, organized a "wheel of fortune" activity at the Italian Festival recently. Lots of positive response!
Folks who "lost" the spin of the wheel were given a consolation prize - wait for it - BANDAIDS!!
Here's Sue's report, verbatim:
Wheeling's Health Care roulette wheel was a HUGE success & lots of FUN, with volunteers getting over 500 people to pledge support for Pres. Obama's health care principles! And it worked especially well with our predominately white, working class, Appalachian crowd. People stopped at the booth for a chance to spin the roulette wheel & win Mardi Gras beads and $25 gas cards, which attracted families, grandparents & grandkids, people of all ages & income levels and opened the door to talk to them about the need for health care reform. The wheel had a red pocket with "Affordable Health Care for All" in which spinners won Mardi Gras beads and a chance to win a $25 gas card. Three orange pockets had positive health care reform slogans ("Like your coverage? You can keep it", "You get a raise since your employer doesn't have to pay for overwhelming health care increases", "Like your doctor? You get to keep them") and the spinners hitting those won Mardi Gras beads.
The rest of the wheel was filled with statements heard from volunteers, online stories and local conversations: "Lost my job, lost my health insurance", "I want to provide insurance for my employees, but I can't afford to", "Can't afford my prescriptions, now eating cat food" , "My employer moved to Canada to avoid having to pay massive health care costs", etc. Many spinners said those were the stories they've experienced or heard from their friends & relatives. One woman hit "Abandoned by my spouse due to health care conditions" and started to tear up when she said that was basically her life at this point.
And then we handed the "loser" spinners a band-aid and said, "We want to give you a band-aid 'cause this is what we do about healthcare, we don't solve the problems, we just give people band-aids." And most people burst out laughing, saying, "You've got that right!" By that point most were eager to declare their support for health care reform and sign the Health Care Declaration. We even had Scooby Doo band-aids for kids who spun the wheel, which they, their parents & grandparents loved. Although this was a little longer process than just asking people to sign as a supporter, it opened up the opportunity to get people to relax and talk about an issue that's impacting all of us. It was successful, fun and l wouldn't be surprised if there were people who went home and told others about "winning a band-aid".