All in a Day
by Cindy Barnard
All in one day, as it so happened, my ideas came together as to what Portal for Change could accomplish.
top: delivery for Pettengill House Saturday Night Meal gets underway; bottom: signs prepared and ready for visibility campaign.
Since the Obama campaign, I’ve wanted to keep the momentum alive, within myself and my community. I want a new direction for affordable health care and a cleaner environment. I want what then presidential candidate Barack Obama was offering. And now that he is President Barack Obama, I am committed to continue my support for him and his goals for our country.
And so on this day of May 2, 2009, members of PFC joined the Newburyport Dem’s in their celebration of President Obama’s First 100 Days with a visibility campaign on the market square. About 40 – 50 people were present as local voices came together to express their views and support for our current administration; to be heard and seen by the community.
Signs aimed toward political issues read, “Rule of Law Returns”, “Health Care for All Americans”, “Diplomacy is Back”, and “Eco-Progress Already”; other signs of support and affection read, “The Hardest Working Man in America”, “Our President Thinks”, and “100 Days, 100 Ways, We Love Obama!” The campaign was met with broad approval as people drove by the square, but one particular driver expressed himself with what I’ll leave as an undisclosed hand gesture. This gesture, as it turned out, rallied everyone together for one of our loudest cheers all morning, a cohesiveness I hope that will be reflected on Capitol Hill. We are ready for change and are standing up against the tired rhetoric and actions of previous administrations that have mislead the country.
Later that day, I finished preparing a dinner for delivery through the Pettengill House Saturday Night Meal program. Located in Salisbury, the Pettengill House has been helping those in need for 15 years, providing for the growing needs of individuals, children, and families in Salisbury, Amesbury, Newburyport, Merrimac, West Newbury, Newbury, Rowley, Byfield, and Groveland.
One of our PFC founders, Shari Wilkinson, began this effort of helping Pettengill House with their Saturday Night Meal program. On Pettengill’s website, they state their key accomplishments for 2008, “2,585 clients (1,517 adults and 1,068 children, 237 of whom were homeless) received intervention and support services, an increase of 316 clients from FY 2007; 108,142 meals were provided, increase of over 10,000 meals from FY 2007; 240 children received backpacks and school supplies (a four year total of 1,588); 31 children received free dental care through the Massachusetts Dental Society Foundation’s Mobile Access to Care Van; 618 school-age children and their families received support through School Link Services; $28,291.40 was provided in emergency assistance funds to families in need.”
packaging hot meals for Pettengill House
The next Saturday Night Dinner is June 6th. If you can help prepare a meal, or help package and deliver, please contact PFC.
I hope everyone who received a meal on that day from Pettengill House could also feel the community support for them. Without judgement, without second guessing, one just jumps in and helps when they are ready to act. It never hurts us, it never wastes our time. We just keep growing and changing in a new direction and building the momentum.
Pettengill House Saturday Night Meal program continues through June 6. Contact us to help.
many rally on the market square in support of Obama's First 100 Days
I still swell with pride & belief. The photos do a good job of putting a face to community service. I really like your words about the untethered process of giving, about the recipients and there equal place in our community. A seldom touched on aspect of volunteering. nicely done.