Monterey County Democrats banner
Newsletter
 December 12, 2008
Our Shops For Change Have Your Holiday Gifts
How would you like to save money, make your family and friends happy and support Democratic values? You can, by shopping at a local Shop For Change!

We have a great selection of T-shirts, mugs, buttons, refrigerator magnets and more, featuring Barack, Joe, Michelle, Jill, and logos for Obama-Biden, the Inauguration and the Democratic Party.

Selection of Democrats shop items

One or more of our gifts can be yours in exchange for a donation as low as $1.00 - so drop by soon!

You can find a Shop For Change at these HQ locations:
Monterey Peninsula
60 Bonifacio Plaza, Monterey (click for a map)
Hours of operation: Mon: 3-6; Tue: 12-8; Wed: 12-6; Thu: 3-6; Fri: 12-3.  Call ahead for details: 333-0101.

Salinas Valley
931 E Market St. Salinas
Hours of operation: Monday through Friday, 9-5.

And coming soon: our web store
Very soon now you'll be able to shop online for our great Dem gear. Stay tuned for an update with the URL of our online store!
Got Food? Over 40,000 Californians Don't -
Help us Fight Hunger during the Holidays
In California, it's estimated that 10% of people have to skip or shrink meals to get by, including 3% who so lack food that they experience the physical pains of hunger.  Hunger can be hard to see in the US.  It's the mom feeding her kids oatmeal for dinner every night at the end of the month.  It's the senior making the can of soup with twice as much water to make it last longer.  And it's the kids standing in pantry lines with their parents eagerly inspecting the bags of groceries they receive.
 
You can help eliminate hunger in your community by joining forces with the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council and the Monterey County Democrats and donating your non-perishable food items to the Monterey County Food Bank.
 
Please bring your non-perishable food items to our offices at:
 
Salinas Valley                                                               Monterey Peninsula
CLC & Democratic Headquarters                               Democratic Headquarters
931 E. Market St. - Salinas                                          60 Bonifacio Plaza, Monterey

Food will be donated to the Food Bank for Monterey County

To learn more about hunger and get involved visit:
The Monterey County Food Bank
Feeding America
Change is Coming - To Monterey
Join the Monterey County Democrats to discuss the issues that are most important to you, what you can do to support Barack's agenda, and how you can continue to make an impact in our community. Now is the time to put aside partisanship and politics, find common ground, and work together. Please invite those who might not have been involved in the campaign, even those who might have supported our opponent. The challenges we face demand we be as inclusive as possible. It'll take the whole country working together to get our country back on track. Bring your ideas - We'll provide dinner!

Sunday, December 14th from 5pm-7pm
Because of overwhelming demand we moved this event from the Monterey Democratic HQ to Round Table Pizza on 375 Alvarado Avenue.
Become a Member of the Obama Transition Team!
President-elect Obama has made it clear that health care reform is one of his top priorities. That's why the Obama-Biden Transition is asking people to give their own thoughts and ideas for how to fix the system at Health Care Community Discussions all across the country.

Join the Monterey County Democrats to discuss Health Care on Thursday, December 18th, from 5-7pm at the HQ on Bonifacio Plaza in downtown Monterey.  Bring your ideas - we will provide snacks!

We will share our personal health care stories, identify common concerns, and discuss ideas about how to fix the Health Care System.

WHAT: Change.Gov Health Care Discussion
WHEN: Thursday, December 18th from 5-7pm
WHERE: Monterey Democratic HQ, 60 Bonifacio Plaza in Downtown Monterey
Celebrating Our Incredible Volunteers
Last week we celebrated the greatest volunteer-driven campaign in Monterey County history with parties on the Peninsula at the Ol' Factory Cafe and in Salinas at the Pizza Factory. In Salinas, Shawn "Bigger! Better!" Bagley came up with the idea of staging a tableau representing the whole campaign - and here's the resulting photo, with a great guide to what it all means supplied by Marjetka Bagley:

Salinas Valley Democratic Club volunteer party

"On the left you have a reenactment of our visibility rallies - the young woman above Shawn's fist along with her mother behind her on the left were typical of people who came in to buy Obama gear and stayed for the rest of the campaign - they were great. The woman holding the handmade 'pueblo' sign is Olga Reyna, our SUPER DOOPER queen of all volunteers. To the right of Olga is Jyl Lutes (who ran for City Council and won) standing in front of our 'representative door' in cardboard with our door hangers on it, showing our GOTV effort. Tucked in the back there by the "door" is Patty Saenz who coordinated our candidate campaigns.

"Shawn (in front) is sitting next to Ed Weinstein in front of our Obama Store reenactment, showing our Obama gear for sale. At the table is Bettye Pina with a megaphone showing our street efforts for all those weekends when we had our 'yard sales' in front of the campaign office. The lady in red is Kathy Parker, an extremely dedicated volunteer who is a big part of our Social Outreach agenda. The UNITY signs on the wall came from the convention and were part of the office décor along with the framed Obama poster next to them.

"The table with the computer monitor signifies our phone bank and data input volunteers: Rosemary Perez (data input), Eric Quigley and Ben Morales (phone bank coordinators). Between Eric and Ben is our youngest phone banker, Kyle Groves (holding a cell phone) who was an inspiration to us all and came dressed in suit complete with Christmas tie yesterday - my kind of guy! Next to Kyle and right behind Ben is Don Pendergrass (with the microphone) who was our jack-of-all volunteers and our resident musician - he put together a band for election night and is doing it again for our Inauguration festivities. Directly behind Don is a Hawaiian-shirted arm belonging to Pat Egan, our successful candidate for Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital Board.

"The big 4x8 Obama sign on the wall with the long paint roller denotes our sign painting project, and we have a couple of students there with brushes and paint. The guy with the clipboard in front is Don Chesterman representing our voter registration efforts - he was one of our office volunteers who showed up out of the blue and stayed. The woman to the right of him is Teri Vasconcellos who was the absolute key in running our campaign office - she was there every day all day and was instrumental in getting the volunteers there. And last but not least, at the far right is the food service team: Sally Pruneda, Lynne Sergius-Briscoe and me replete with our standard plates of chicken and bucket of candy."