PPPA interns lay the groundwork for election work!

Remember "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essays in grade school? Well, if I had to write one now as a 23-year-old recent college graduate, I'd have to say that the last four weeks of my summer have been interesting and inspiring to say the least. Being offered the opportunity to be a Planned Parenthood Campaign Organizer intern has been one of the most exciting, enriching experiences I've had. My days are filled with work that, while perhaps isn't the most glamorous or fabulous, is always exciting and challenging. And in the midst of an economically questionable summer in which many Americans are partaking in "staycations" instead of stealing away to exotic locales, I'd venture to say that not only is my summer work exciting, it's also pretty important.

Jenn and I have been working out of John Siptroth's campaign office in Marshalls Creek. We're really lucky in that we have an awesome setup. We have the entire headquarters to ourselves, complete with a plethora of office supplies, a computer, fax machine, and phones. Basically, we're laying a lot of the groundwork for things that will happen later in the campaign as we approach the election. We've streamlined databases, organized the headquarters completely, set up two MySpace pages (Women for Siptroth and Vets for Siptroth), make countless phone and walk lists, and coordinated the setup and volunteer staffing for the recently-held American Freedom Festival in East Stroudsburg, among other things. (Which also included a very Lucy and Ethel-esque hours long hunt for curling ribbon around downtown Stroudsburg…) So on the campaign end of things, it's been a lot of computer work, but I realize how crucial this foundation is in making sure that John is re-elected and can continue to advocate for our issues (among other issues of course!) in HD 189.

As far as our PPPA stuff goes, Jenn and I have done lots of phone calls and crowd canvassing, but we have even more exciting things on the horizon. On Wednesday, we're tabling the Mae show at Crocodile Rock in Allentown. We're gunning to meet AND exceed our Million Strong goal at this event. After that, we're hosting a house party at my house a week from Thursday and hopefully petitioning at MusikFest in Bethlehem and one of the upcoming Warped Tour dates. There's a lot to look forward to and a lot of really exciting work to be done as we continue on this particular summer adventure!

- Joy, Northeast PA

Maybe we’ll even make the local news

Getting a campaign office up and running isn’t always the most interesting task, but it makes such a difference to the candidate in the end. So in the last three weeks I’ve spent a great deal of time helping the Siptroth campaign organize its electronic resources – creating/updating databases, generating reports, etc. As I have a lot of experience with this sort of work, I feel I have made a significant impact.

One fun and interesting thing I have done is I’ve also made a MySpace page, “Vets for Siptroth,” to try to rally support for the representative among the local veteran crowd, or at least get the word out to others that he’s really working for veteran’s issues.

What I’m really excited about are our upcoming plans – organizing some visibility or protests when Senator John McCain comes to north east Pennsylvania on July 23, and crowd canvassing and tabling at local music events. Yes, that’s right, McCain is going to be in the area and we’re so taking advantage of that – gathering a bunch of people, making signs, basically making sure as many people as possible know how out of line with mainstream values the Senator is. And hey – maybe we’ll even make the local news and be able to get the word out for on public TV about McCain’s horrible record on women’s health!

- Jenn, Northeast PA