It was a great day in Lowell for BMG. Charley, Lynne (of Left in Lowell fame),Christopher and I, along with others from around the Commonwealth took a boat ride on the canals of Lowell, checked out the Visitor Center and then canvassed. The regional folks tell me that we knocked 750 doors on Sunday!
There were twenty five people on the boat tour. Fifteen were with our group, including Charley’s parents who were visiting from out of state. As we gathered I was welcoming folks and there were only a couple of regular customers there. I introduced myself to one of them to explain that we would be gathering and talking about the day. As soon as I mentioned Elizabeth Warren’s name she became very excited. She lives in New York and was just here to visit the Park, but she had donated to the campaign and was thrilled that we were there.
It was an interesting group of people. As an organizer I’m always looking at what got people there. At least one person read it on BMG and then got his brother to join him. One of my less political friends who lives in Lowell signed up because I invited her through facebook. She thought she was signing up to tour the Park and go on a boat ride. She canvassed with us; her partner told me that she did great. Four of us were DSC members. Some were part of the Young Dems. Most came because of a phone call.
Charley and I partnered which was great. We talked about BMG and our upcoming trip to Charlotte. The houses were very close together. The voters were friendly and many had not made decisions.
A group of us went out for drinks afterwards. It’s always nice to socialize. Charley and I both want to do a BMG canvass in Lowell again. There are other tours that work well for Sunday AM followed by a PM canvass. It’s a neat city with an arts community. It is accessible by commuter rail from the Boston area. It is convenient for 495.
Who’s in?
Kate
I didn’t mention that this was Day 40 for me on my “Doors Every Day” plan. It really is fun. I also did a quick canvass when we got back to Westborough.
Lowell Open Studios, that event is Saturday October 6th and Sunday October 7th, 2012 11am to 5pm. One could pick one of the larger venues, do some art viewing (my recommendation would be Western Ave Studios or the new live-work studios at Appleton Mills, Appleton being close to downtown) from 11-1 or something, then an afternoon canvassing. I will warn, there’s a lot of walking to view the studios even in those buildings so you’d really want to limit it to 1-2 hours at most of art viewing. You can be there the whole weekend and not see all the open studios across the city.
The boat ride on the canals was fun. I thought it was interesting to be hearing about the historic flooding in May of 2006 and remembering the connection with our bloggers forum for LG candidates. I remember how we had to change the location because of the flodding.
the NEW LTC space…it’s awesome. They moved the bottom floor next door and it’s just an amazing space, and redid the upstairs studios. Ya know, we ought to do another event there for the next gub’s election!