Standing out on the corner

Just wrapped up two outstanding nights hanging out on the corner of Chester and Sharon visiting with the parents of our middle school music students. Well, maybe not visiting with them exactly but at least speaking with them and watching a number of them support our cause by signing our petitions. A few passed us by with a congenial 'no thank you', but a lot more passed us by with an 'already signed'. We didn't mind that second comment nearly so much.

Hopefully we'll get a lot more signatures before Thursday's PCMS band concert, when we'll be back out working the corner...

...with our petitions, c'mon, folks.

By the by, big thanks to Maggie Jones of Lincoln Heights for being the first to turn in her petition. Remember, all circulators, we need your petitions turned in post haste so the OEA can begin verifying the signatures.

PS - For those of you who might've been around PCSD for a year or two, Gretchen Tash passed along this photo of a certain past PCSD superintendent <cough Richard Denoyer cough> signing our petition with his wife Saturday at Washington Park. For those of you who are newer to PCSD, ask somebody around who remembers Dr Denoyer.

C'mon out to the park

The weather looks to be absolutely gorgeous,so why don't you come on out to Washington Park with us this afternoon?

We'll be there from 12-5 offering petitions to sign.

Calling in the troops...and the drinks

Got an email from Ann Bayou today. She's our local OEA rep.

Her bosses are calling in all the petitions, so we're going to need to give petitions to Ann by Monday at the latest. She'll give us more petitions for each one we turn in, but she needs to get our petitions by Monday.

So, we're calling in all the petitions - whether you have ten signatures or fifty. They have to come in.

The best way would be to bring them to Saturday's community event (12-5 at Washington Park, have we mentioned?) so we can check off what's come in and make sure the back page is filled in correctly. If you can't make it to Saturday's event (and that's going to have to be something pretty big for us to understand that), then give an email to the PACEForKids@gmail.com address so we can arrange an in-person pickup. These can't go through the Pony service at PCSD.

And separately, thanks to Kevin Lawhon for being the first donor to get a 12pk to the high school for Saturday's event. We got a few through the day, but we're still in need. Bring 'em on, folks.

Drinks anybody?

Three things today...

One...

So, PACE has been kind enough to donate some money to buy snacks for Saturday's event, but we're hoping we can get some of our members to donate drinks for the festivities. We're looking to go with bottles and cans to keep things a little more portable in case people want to stop by and take off.

So, we're asking you to donate a 12pk (or more if you're feeling generous) of your favorite soda. Feel free to swing by the high school and drop off the drinks by the end of the day Friday (if you're at the elementary school, remember that we're in session before you guys are, so you can just roll up front and give the case to the front desk to deliver to Lonnie Dusch if you want to). We'll take Coke or Pepsi, bottled tea or water, orange or grape, diet or regular (no adult beverages, we'll save those for once we get this thing on the ballot). We're not proud. We'll get things cooled down and ready to serve on Saturday then. If you are willing to donate,  please email PACEForKids@gmail.com so we know what to expect.

Two...

We had a signer at Heritage Hill ask if we had a Montgomery County petition available. Initially we didn't, but we do now. So, if you're from Montgomery County and weren't able to sign earlier, give Becky Brown a holler (or just email PACEForKids@gmail.com), and we'll get you all hooked up.

Third...

A few folks passed along today that they saw/heard in the news that a recent survey suggested that fifty-four percent of those surveyed are in favor of repealing Senate Bill 5. That's obviously not the same as saying fifty-four percent are willing to come out to the ballot box in November, but it's at least encouraging news. Now we just need to get all those people to sign our petitions.

Stewart, here we come. We'll see you folks Thursday afternoon. We're hoping to roll to Evendale on Friday before we go food shopping.

PS - Just heard that Lisa McDaniel will be at the Back Porch Saloon on Thursday (5/19) afternoon from 3:30-5ish with her Hamilton County petition. She'll be there with some of the PCMS staff who are saying goodbye to some of their departing colleagues. Stop by if you haven't had a chance to see us at any of our other events.

Where else can I sign?

Yes, we desperately want you at this Saturday's event at Washington Park. I think we've mentioned that.

Heck, we want you at Stewart Elementary School this Thursday afternoon after 4pm when we'll be there with petitions.

But, we desperately need you to sign, and if you're going to give your signature to a different organization, we'll put up with that, too. So where else could you sign other than at our events?

Well, there's the Lakota Education Association's couple of upcoming events...

• West Chester Public Library - 10am-2pm on Saturday, 5/21 (yes, opposite our big community event)
• Voice of America Park - 2:30-5pm on Wednesday, 5/25

We Are Ohio's website has tons of resources for the campaign, and their Facebook wall has a great and constantly-updating list of upcoming signings (including a mention of our Saturday Community Event.) Their twitter feed is also pretty quickly and constantly updated, but c'mon, who uses Twitter anymore?

We can't quite figure out where the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers is taking their petitions, but they're still offering a lot of training opportunities. (Speaking of which, you can still get your own petition by emailing us. We have a few still to give out.)

The Hamilton County Democratic Party has a community canvasing planned for this weekend (seriously, May 21 is apparently popular) and has petitions available seven days a week at their office on Tennessee Ave.

The Butler County Democratic Party also has a bunch of events - in Oxford, Hamilton, West Chester, Middletown, and Monroe. They're busy all over the place.

Heck, if you're a Montgomery County voter, the Democratic Party of Montgomery County has a website and Facebook page, but it mostly sounds like they have petitions at their offices from 10am-5pm (not necessarily all that convenient if you're driving home from room 520 of Princeton High School (or from Heritage Hill as we learned on Monday afternoon). Luckily, we have a Montgomery County petition now.

The Warren County Democratic Party doesn't have much posted online, but the Clermont County Democratic Party will be in Old Milford this weekend (10am-12pm).

The Wyoming Education Association doesn't have anything posted on their site. The Northwest Association of Educators hasn't apparently been updated online since 2007.

Honestly, it looks like we're doing a pretty good job of keeping you folks updated. Wanna reward us? Bring lots of people out this weekend.

Where's Washington Park?

In starting to spread the word about this Saturday's community signing event at Washington Park in Glendale, the most common response we've gotten has almost without fail had three parts...

• Great!
• I'll be there!
• Wait, where is it?

So we thought it might be a good idea to give a few hints as to just where Washington Park is in the world.

Let's start with a couple of maps from Google...

The best way to describe its location is a block north and a block or two west of the PCSD Central Office. (Central office is directly behind Friendly Stop Cafe on the lower of those two maps.)

Here's an aerial view from Bing...

We'll be at the shelter house next to the basketball court. There's a playground for the kids, space to set up a few games of cornhole, and - most importantly - a place to spread out our petitions to get 'em signed.

If anybody needs directions, here's what we suggest you offer up.

From the north...

• Drive south on 747.
• From the intersection of Kemper (right by Tri-County Mall), go about 1 mile.
• Turn right on Washington Ave (at a stop light by Glendale Florist & Gaslight Cafe)
• Go about 1/2 mile on Washington Ave.
• Park is on the right, head into the driveway for best access.

From the south...

• Drive north on 747 (Congress Ave in Glendale)
• From the intersection of Sharon Rd & 747, turn left at the next stoplight.
• Go about 1/2 mile on Washington Ave.
• Park is on the right, head into the driveway for best access.

From the east or west, get to Tri-County Mall and head south or get to the Sharon/747 intersection and head north.

It's actually really easy to get to, and we're looking forward to Saturday.

Major congrats to Becky Heckman at PHS who already has 18 registered voter grads pledging to come and bring their friends.

What are you doing to bring folks?

It's Washington Park

Just spoke to Paige with Glendale Youth Sports, and we are set for Saturday at Washington Park.

The event will run from 12-5, and like we wrote yesterday, we need you to be there.