Things are heating up...literally...

This afternoon was magnificent.

We got most of the Glendale staff signed on the petition and handed out three blank petitions to Glendale staffers, all of whom promised us at least fifty signatures by taking it around their neighborhoods, to their local police force, through the stands at soccer and baseball games, and generally finding anybody and everybody who wants Senate Bill 5 repealed. That's the kind of excitement and dedication that we're looking for.

Then, after a brief break in the air conditioning (and we use the term loosely) of PHS, we headed out into the swelter of the warmest day of the year so far to receive a bountiful blessing from the Princeton community on their way into for the final choir concert of the year (and of Jamie Holdren's PHS tenure, congrats, Jamie). We saw parents, aunts, uncles, retired staffers, alumni, current teachers, and lots of our union brothers and sisters signing for us. We saw wives telling their husbands to sign, parents bringing back their graduated children as they'd promised us from Monday night. We saw seniors filling out their voter registration forms just so they could sign and support their schools.

We've filled two petitions entirely and have nearly full Butler and Warren county petitions. Those'll be turned in to Ann Bayou on Friday so we can get new petitions and hand those out as well.

Our Glendale connection came through, so now we just have to get Glendale to give the okay to us using the park (we don't think it'll be a problem, but the form has to filed). Hopefully May 21st will work out just fine.

Heritage's signing has been moved to Monday of next week, and we're still on to see the Sharonville staff at the Blue Goose on Friday. Let's make this one a three-way signing by bringing out Evendale and Stewart, too. Anybody on either of those staffs willing to do the organizing work to get people excited? Heck, I'll promise to buy a drink for the first Stewart and first Evendale person who stops in at the Goose. Just to make it fair, I'll buy one for the first Sharonville staffer, too.

A day's respite...back to the grind

The weather at the Ice Cream Social last night was gorgeous, and we want to give a shout out to the jazz band parents who stopped by our table to voice their opposition to Senate Bill 5 as well as Pat Walden who manned the table and brought in parents by the bucketload. Also nice to hear from a fellow union man who stopped by to cheer us on and mentioned that he'd gotten 120 signatures by taking a petition to his kid's track meet the past weekend (speaking of which, read on to see how you can get your very own petition - yes, a teaser, take that.)

Tuesday was a bit of a day off from collecting signatures, but Wednesday is right back at things as we'll see the Glendale crowd at O'Charley's and hopefully see the choir parents outside Matthews at PHS for the choir concert (apparently we should show up a little sooner as the students' call time is 6:30 meaning that there are a lot of parents who are there before that 6:30 time - lesson learned). If the weather's dry, we'll be at the corner of Matthews to catch 'em as they cross over to the school. If it's raining, though, we'll be inside keeping our petitions dry.

Thursday, then we're trying to get over to Heritage Hill to do a quick signing on the sidewalk.

Friday, then we'll be at the Blue Goose to hang with the Sharonville (and maybe Stewart and Evendale) folks.

We're still working toward a district-wide event at Summit Park on May 21. We're looking for a Glendale resident who's friendly to the campaign and would be willing to talk to the park board about making that reservation for us, though. If you know of a such a person, can you make the initial contact and then pass their info along to your humble webmaster, Lonnie Dusch, at the paceforkids@gmail.com email? I have a contact or two, but I'd take a more solid one.

We also have - big news - enough petitions that we can start handing those out to anyone who's a trained circulator (or who wants to be one and is willing to listen to one of us talk to you for about ten minutes) and is willing to pledge to get fifty signatures. We're including that last part to make sure we get our good union money's worth out of the petitions that we've had printed up. You can take the petitions to your kid's baseball game, your bunko night (does anybody play bunko anymore?), your pilates class, your family reunion, or just around your neighborhood like I am this weekend.

Give a holler in the comments or to the paceforkids@gmail.com email if you're interested in having your very own petition to help the campaign.

Oustanding work today, folks

We're still counting up the signatures, but we can say with no doubt that Springdale and PHS made today a fine start toward getting the 231,149 signatures that we need state-wide.

The afternoon started at PHS with dozens of staffers clad in their I Helped Make Princeton Excellent shirts (thanks, PACE, for getting those printed, by the way) showing their solidarity and signing the petitions to repeal SB5. We even got a visit and signature from one of our building administrators.

From there we headed to the UDF across the street from Springdale Elementary where nearly the entire Springdale staff found us tucked under shelter from the threatening skies and signed their names to the petitions.

Today was a great show of support, folks, and tomorrow will only be better as we'll be at Princeton Community Middle School's library from 3:15 (if that's the end of the Middle School contract day, it might be 3:30) for an hour.

If anybody from PHS missed their chance today, come on over to PCMS.

If anybody from Springdale missed your chance, come on over to PCMS. We'll wait for you.

If anybody from Glendale or any of the other elementary schools wants to go ahead and sign, come on over.

We're still looking to nail down details of visits to

• Woodlawn and Lincoln Heights (Looks like maybe at The Pike on Friday afternoon)
• Glendale (what about the Friendly Stop so our CO folks can visit, too?)
  
• Heritage Hill (Is there a better option than Crescentville Rec?)
  
• Sharonville (Anybody wanna spend some time in Gower Park?)
• Evendale (Would the church across the way let us hang out for an hour?)
• Stewart (I'm pulling for a shelter house at Francis Recreacres.)

We'll also have the petitions on the sidewalk at the Jazz Band Ice Cream Social at PHS on Monday evening, May 9 if anybody wants to bring some friends in.

We're thinking that an all-Princeton event on the afternoon of May 21 would be a great way to bring the whole district together - friends, families, neighbors, everyone.

Here's my question for you - where is the best public place (park shelter house, rec center, somewhere cheap/free) that we should have a large, district-wide event?

Bonus: Governor Kasich made a proclamation that this week is Public Service Appreciation Week. Seriously.