Since the election, the Obama team has kept much of their online campaign communications organization together (email, facebook, youtube, etc) and pointed in various directions. One of the most intriguing for me to watch has been the “call to service” suggestions from the Obama Team and Moveon.org. This month, an email was distributed asking all who received the email to find a local charity or service to volunteer for on Monday, Jan 19th, as a way to ease the economic crisis for others in your community.
Barack and Michelle Obama have a request for us: Spend this coming Monday—Martin Luther King Day—volunteering to serve the urgent needs in our communities.In this economic crisis, food banks are struggling to keep up. Homeowners need help weatherizing to keep out the cold. Schools are crumbling.
Some folks have been hit harder by the recession than others, but we’re all in it together. We’ve all got to roll up our sleeves and help each other out. And volunteering is always a great experience—in just a few hours, you can help make a huge difference in the lives of others.
I have to admit most of my interest in the email campaigns has been a detached curiosity about public response. This is an online campaign that was able to generate millions of dollars each month for over a year for Obama as a candidate, would it be equally as effective in getting people to volunteer for a charity in their local area?
Today they have finalized the “Find an Event” map for the January 19th effort, and I did a search of available events I could be a part of along the Wasatch Front. On Martin Luther King Day, 2009, there are 43 separate events (two in Cache Valley) — from blood drives, food banks, and home repairs to alerting people to area code changes and the DTV transition — already organized, and the tool allows you to organize your own with a few simple clicks.
There have been many interesting firsts for me (a jaded, watchful cynic, to be sure) since the start of 2008, and many of them have surrounded Barack Obama and his campaign machines. There is something exciting about seeing the mechanisms usually reserved for generating campaign cash and votes — and often tossed aside after the votes are cast and money spent — being used to get people out and reinvesting in their own communities.
I hope this effort grows.
