My County Democratic Party needs your help.
I'm sure you're wondering: "Which Democratic County Party is yours, and why does it need my help?"
Well the answer is easy, I'm a proud member of the Manistee County Democratic Party, and we need money.
We're a small county (population around 26,000) and we don't really need a lot of money ($1,000 will see us through November 5th in good shape); but unfortunately with Michigan's economy being what it is, we're having a hard time raising even the $1,000 that we need.
The median household income in my county is $36,204, the per capita income is $17,204, and 12.5% of the our county's residents are living below poverty level... So as you can imagine, with winter on its way and the heating bills that inevitably come with it, most people in my county just don't have any extra money to donate, and those that are lucky enough to have a couple of extra bucks are holding on to it for winter.
So why do we need money the money? That answer is pretty easy too...
Rent, phonebanking, and printing.
The rent is due on October 15th (4 days from now!), we'd like to be able to get about 3,000 slate cards printed up to send out with all of our canvassers in the last three weeks of the campaign, and *we want to add a few more phones to increase our phonebanking operations.
*(Expanding our phonebanking operations is extremely important, because we're one of only 4 blue counties in the entire Western half of the State of Michigan and as such, we're luckily pretty flush with volunteers. Our surrounding counties aren't nearly so blessed... some don't even have a headquarters at all, are making due with a literal handful of volunteers, and we'd really like to be able to help them out by having our some of our volunteers call these other counties' voters.)
Right now we've got enough money in our treasury to do either one or the other, but we can't do all of the above, and I'd really, Really, REALLY like to be able to do all three... So I'm begging you to please help us!!!
As you can see, we've got a pretty spectacular headquarters right next to an ice cream store, but what you can't see in that picture is this...
That headquarters is next to the only ice cream shop in the entire town, smackdab in the middle of River Street in Manistee, which happens to be the only walkable shopping street in the entire city, that also happens to be the only city in the entire county.
The red line is the walking traffic area on River Street. It's where all of the popular shops, restaurants, hotels, banks, bars, and whatnot are located, and therefor it's where everybody does most of their walking on River Street.
The blue box is where the Manistee County Democratic Party's headquarters are, and the red dot is where the Manistee County republican party's headquarters are located... I'm sure you can't help but notice that the Manistee repub headquarters are way at the end of River Street, well past all the foot traffic.
We're pretty proud of the fact that locals and tourists are constantly wandering into our office and wander out carrying Democratic signs, buttons, bumper stickers, and t-shirts.... And we take great delight in the fact that no one even knows the republicans even have a headquarters in Manistee County, because nobody ever goes down to the end of River Street, and we'd like to be able to keep that advantage at least until election day.
So won't you please, Please, PLEASE consider donating whatever you can afford to help a very worthy cause?
If you can afford to give even $5.00 it would be a HUGE help... Of course even more would be fantastic, but I understand that there's a million worthy causes in need right now, and we're not greedy. Any you can throw our way will be greatly appreciated.
In exchange for your generosity I am willing to make a trade... Eye candy for money.
The Manistee County Democratic Party was at every single parade this summer, and not only was I also at all of those parades... I brought a bunch of people, and some extremely cute kids with me.
Here's a good one of my sister, her son and daughter, and two of her friend's daughters during the Bear Lake Days Parade...
They're supporting Dan Scripps, who will be our next State Representative!
This one is my ever-loving hubby (and fellow Kossack AikoAdam)wearing his favorite Obama t-shirt!
And here is our Obama field director Atina White and County Commissioner Glen Lottie.
Here are my nieces Cecilia, Alexandria and my nephew Ty tossing freeze pops to the crowds in Copemish...
And these two lovely ladies are sure to be members of a future Manistee County Democratic Party executive committee and have been some of our most dedicated parade staff over the years...
Did I mention the Manistee Dems have a parade staff?
Cuz if I didn't, I meant to! :-)
And here is one of the many reasons we work so hard and do what we do here in Manistee County...
Kendra Rohdy is our Democratic Register of Deeds candidate and she, like all of our Democratic candidates is counting on us being able to lend support her campaign, and we don't want to let her, nor any of our other candidates down in the final stretch.
And if eye candy isn't enough to make you cough up a couple of bucks for a very good cause... I'm willing to offer a bribe. I've designed a couple of templates to make 2.25 inch buttons and I'm offering them up to anyone that wants to use them.
If you've got a 2.25 inch button maker and would like to make these designs, just click here and follow the instructions.
So once again, please consider making a donation to my county party, the Manistee County Democratic Party?
I've never done this before, but if you aren't able to donate right now could you please rec this diary so that others that are able to kick in a few bucks might read this diary and donate?
I promise you your money will be put to good use, by not only helping to elect good Democrats in my county, but also helping to elect Dems in our surrounding counties as well.
I'd like to thank you in advance for any help you're able to provide!
UPDATE:
Woo-Hoo! Over a quarter of the way there!
You all are just absolutely spectacular and I can't possibly thank you enough, but I can give you some bonus eye candy... So here's a picture of my supercool pumpkin!
If you like the pumpkin and want to make one of your own, Yes We Carve! has a bunch of really cool templates and easy to follow instructions.
UPDATE 2:
We're over halfway there now! Thanks to you, my fellow Kossacks!
I just made a new button template and uploaded it to the same page as the others. Here's what it looks like:
UPDATE 3:
WE MADE IT!!!
A big huge "Thank You!" to everyone that donated to make this possible!
You have no idea how much this will mean to not only our county, but the surrounding counties that we'll now be able to help out with their GOTV activities.