Tireless and determined volunteers aid the campaign

As the seventh week of my internship with Planned Parenthood and the campaign of Representative Barbara McIlvaine Smith is beginning, I am realizing just how much I have learned already. For the past six weeks, Ashley and I have worked on Barb’s campaign with Lani, the campaign manager, and various dedicated and eccentric volunteers. We started working out of Lani’s house for the first two weeks and then opened our campaign office in downtown West Chester, where we feel welcomed and at home. Every day, we make phone calls, enter data, stuff envelopes, come up with new GOTV (Get Out The Vote) ideas, work on Barb’s Facebook and Myspace, write fundraising letters, and try to get to know the district a little bit better.

I have met so many volunteers who are committed to ensuring Barb’s re-election, even if they do not reside in the 156^th district. From Leslie, who stuffs palm cards in doorknob bags while she watches the Phillies games to Richard, affectionately known as Baba, who pokes into the office multiple times a week to give us his fresh, new ideas and engage us in conversation that seems like it never ends, Barb’s volunteers are tireless and determined; they believe that Barb is the best person for the job because of her ethics and her dedication to important and progressive issues. For these same reasons, I have morphed into a huge Barb supporter and find myself talking to Ashley almost every day about how we wish we lived in the district so that we could vote for her in November.

I really feel like I am not only gaining valuable experience for my own benefit this summer, but I am also making a difference by working on the McIlvaine Smith campaign because Barb is an excellent representative. She is dedicated to ethics reform in Harrisburg, an issue that needs to be addressed desperately if our state legislature truly wants to affect positive change for the people of Pennsylvania. Barb is most concerned with three issues besides ethics reform: the environment, education and healthcare. She is pro-choice and very supportive of Planned Parenthood’s issues. Barb is a regular citizen who decided to take a stand for what she believed in for the benefit of her community, district and state. Because I am grateful for her courageous work in an area of the commonwealth that is not always very receptive to democrats holding office and change in the status quo, I am enjoying my internship that much more. In Barb, I have found a leader to learn from, to fight for and most of all, to admire.

- Molly, Southeast PA

Learning to love canvassing

The majority of my time is spent working with the Rick Taylor Campaign
in House District 151. I am having a very positive experience working
within the Rick Taylor family. My day-to-day boss, Rob, is an efficient
field director with a wicked sense of humor. There are several interns
all of whom are young, active, and pleasant to work with. In addition,
it has been an honor getting to know Monica (my partner). The energy
within the campaign office is infectious. I have grown to love
canvassing; I look forward to my daily canvass. There is a great duality
to canvassing: it is an efficient way to gain votes and ID residents
while simultaneously offering an opportunity to glimpse into people's
eccentric and bizarre ways of life.

From the Planned Parenthood side of things, Monica and I have been
trained with clinic advocacy. There is a Planned Parenthood clinic
within close walking distance from Rick Taylor's campaign office. The
clinic should be a great way to get more C4 opt-ins and ID Planned
Parenthood supporters.

I feel pro-active and inspired on a day-to-day basis doing my work for
this internship.

- Annie, Southeast PA

To all my fellow choice supporters:

I have officially been a Planned Parenthood Campaign Organizer intern for about five weeks, and have already seen the benefit of working for this fabulous organization. As a Planned Parenthood organizer on Rep. Barbara McIlvaine Smith's campaign for re-election, I have had the pleasure of speaking with many pro-choice voters in her district. The overwhelming amount of gratitude for our efforts as an organization has perpetually made the calls with uninterested anti-choice voters much more tolerable; however, while I have encountered my fair share of anti-choice voters unwilling to listen to our message, I have also found a small, precious group who were swayed. After overcoming some of my initial nerves when calling people who I had first inappropriately stereotyped as anti-choice, I finally became comfortable discussing these sensitive issues with unlikely choice supporters. Once my confidence level increased, so did my success at recruiting more pro-choice voters!

Working toward opting in Pennsylvania's goal of 25,501 choice voters to the One Million Strong Campaign has helped to bridge my studies and my passion for social justice. As a double major in Political Science and Women's Studies, I was asked to serve as a member on the President's Commission on Women at my university this past academic year. The Commission worked to evaluate the gender climate on my school's campus as well as hiring a full time director for our Women's center and improving women's health services provided. As an advocate for victims of sexual assault, rape and violence on campus, I was disappointed that I had to FIGHT for the administration to even pay attention to the HIGH number of women needing access to emergency contraception and rape counseling through the college's health center. Without a counselor specializing in rape and sexual assault victims on campus, students who are victims of sexual violence can only talk to general counselors who treat hundreds of other students. Realizing that victims really had no where to turn, especially in a highly anti-choice area where only anti-choice organizations exist, I found myself feeling incredibly hopeless.

I admittedly stumbled into the Planned Parenthood Campaign Organizer internship this summer, having the good fortune of meeting two lovely Planned Parenthood Grassroots Organizers at a college internship fair. After talking with them for a few minutes and giving them my resume, I walked away feeling like I had found where I belonged. Sick of fighting with an administration that was not receptive to what the women on their campus needed, I found a group of strong, like minded individuals who all enjoyed fighting for what I fight for: the freedom to make choices about our bodies and live as individuals free of persecution. I could not have been any luckier or happier to have found this group.

-- Ashley, Southeast PA