The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Paul P. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Take Action - Volunteering for a Political Campaign
Joe Knollenberg, U.S. House of Representatives, District 9
My cousin and I both volunteered for the Knollenberg campaign, and it was definitely worth it. The tasks given to us were far from easy, and sometimes exhausting, but still enjoyable. We did everything from gallivanting from door-to-door with information on the candidates and a healthy smile to calling endless lists of people and encouraging them to vote.
I'm now fully convinced that when volunteering for any candidate's campaign half of the excitement comes from meeting people that are… unconventional in their behavior, to say the leas, possibly frightening as well. I assume that plenty of atypical events occur to the people that volunteer for a campaign of any sort and that my cousin and I were not simply the odd group that ran into a few eccentrics out of blind chance.
I'm honestly surprised my cousin and I ran into and heard of as few unusual situations as we did. Not to say we didn't have our troubles. We still had a good amount of rude or obnoxious people callings us losers, making birdcalls into our phones, or being problematic in numerous other ways - but, there were still less than I had expected to run into. I'd always thought that the world was a much crazier place. For the most part we would just do our job, and people were respectful (or at least tolerant) of that.
The first day that we volunteered, we received stacks of mini-brochures on the candidates for the Republican Party, and we were given the honorable duty of dispersing among our victims: those with absentee ballots yet unsent. We did, and we enjoyed it. Most of the people on that day were quite cordial and responsive and even supportive of our cause... well, the ones that we met anyway. Apparently one of our fellow volunteers was chased out of one of the yards he visited by a democrat in desperate need of some anger management skills.
The next two times we volunteered were much more difficult, and mentally exhausting. This probably had to do with the hundreds upon hundreds of phone numbers we were given and the pre-scripted message we repeated numerous of times over the course of several hours. Saying the same exact messages over and over again until you could hardly think anymore may not sound like the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it was still enjoyable in it's own way.
Meeting Representative Knollenberg was a pleasure, to be sure. He was a very inspirational person, in word, deed, and character. You could tell he was a softhearted person just by looking at him. He always had an encouraging word to say, and his humor was far from harsh in nature. He appeared to be quite a wise person, as well. I honestly believe that he would have been the best candidate for state representative.
Even though Knollenberg was unable to take a seat in congress, I am still glad and even honored that I was able to volunteer for him, not to mention meet him in person. I believe that the experience has helped to shape me for the better, and I know that in the future - because of this experience - I will be more involved in other candidates' runs for government positions. I thank God for the fact that we live in a nation in which we are able to choose our leaders so freely.
