From Chicago and California, Obama volunteers flock in from out of state

By Monroe Anderson
Special to the AFRO

Manchester, N.H.—One thing noticeable about Barack Obama’s campaign is that there are volunteers and campaign workers from seemingly everywhere.

Volunteers from coast-to-coast have been pouring into the Granite State because they say they believe in Obama. While Ron Cherlin, the press secretary for the New Hampshire Obama campaign, has no idea of how many out-of-staters have shown up to volunteer their help, he said he knows “there’s a ton of interest.”

With New Hamphsire’s key primary vote less than 24 hours away, some 2,000 volunteers from New Hampshire are working for the Obama campaign, and the campaign is drawing others from other East Coast states.

“Anybody within striking distance wants to be here,” Cherlin said.

Scott-Boria and Brian Brady of the Mikva Challenge of Chicago brought 60 minority high school students to New Hampshire to work would work as volunteers for the Obama campaign and the campaigns of seven other presidential candidates over a five-day period.

Scott Boria, a board member, and Brady, organization’s executive director said the idea is to expose the children of color to politics and much more.

“Many of these kids have never been on an airplane before,” Scott-Boria.

Brady said that involving students in political campaigns is as valuable as a civics lesson in a classroom. It also provides them with an important experience they otherwise would not have. Presidential campaigns are more often than not an old boys network.

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