Volunteer for our Kids Vote table in Utica
Volunteer for IMV's "Kids Vote" Table on Oct. 28
Last year at Harvest on the Hill in Utica, IMV's "kids vote" table was a huge success! We saw hundreds of children in costumes, showed them how to vote for their favorite candy by secret ballot, talked to their adults about registering to vote and/or voting in the upcoming election, and provided apples, candy, and water to families as they headed down James Street. We even had hundreds of kids take photos with our big blow-up dinosaur with a "Dinos for Democracy" sign. So fun!
We need your help for the event again this year. Please sign up for a volunteer shift or two. We need a lot of volunteers for each time slot. If you can't be with us that day, we would still welcome your donations of candy, apples, and other supplies for the day--also on the sign up sheet below here:
IMV Kids Vote Table at Harvest on the Hill
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 12 pm-5 pm
James Street, Utica.
Sign up HERE
NY22 Messaging Practice Session on Zoom
The NY22 Messaging Group is offering a support session for teams as a follow-up to Handling Misinformation - What Do You Say to All the Lies?
Wednesday, October 18th from 7-8:30 pm.
Are you getting ready to knock on doors? Are you searching for some best practices to use when posting and responding to Social Media or writing LTE's? This session is tailored specifically for GROUPS (like IMV!) to take our training with Dana Balter to the next level. Here is our chance to meet as a group to brainstorm, plan, practice, and receive feedback. Register here: https://forms.gle/bWJ9vnXR8Qmwpqo2A
Please fill out the form using the link above and a Zoom link will be sent to you a few days before the training.
IMV Postcards Update: The Final Push!
Thanks to so many wonderful volunteers who have been writing postcards at the Thursday parties or doing pick up and drop off to write on their own. We've also had a tremendous response to our request for money for stamps and postcard stamps. Now we are down to our final postcard party, and our deadline for completing the cards, but we still have almost 1000 postcards to write.
Final Postcard Party
Thursday, Oct. 19, 4:00-5:30 pm (Please note the later time on this date).
New Hartford Library (2 Library Lane):
Come to the postcard party or pick up a pack of postcards! We have 1311 postcards that need to be written in the next two weeks. We need all postcards returned before October 22. You can pick up and drop off postcards at the party or if you want to arrange to pick up postcards at another time, email Carole Gehrig (cgehrig_1@yahoo.com). There are 10 packs of 90 each in the pick up box at Carole's house in Whitesboro. Please remember that all postcards you have need to be returned by Oct. 22 so we can get them in the mail to women voters in key districts locally.
Help Re-Elect Caroline Reale for County
IMV members continue to support Caroline's re-election campaign for County legislator (District 15). Thanks for attending her fundraiser last week and contributing to her campaign. Caroline Reale’s upcoming canvassing events:
"Saturday October 21st 10AM launch from Utica (We will be joined by some of our union friends from 1199) Sign up here: https://www.carolineforcounty.com/get-involved
GOTV- Sunday October 29th at 4PM We will meet on the New Hartford Village Green, across from the NH Volunteer Fire Department to walk local turfs and mobilize democratic voters, reminding them early voting has arrived!
Phone Banking: Sunday October 22nd at Noon - You can join us in person at my house 10 Pippin Wood Drive, New Hartford. If you'd like a virtual option for phone banking on your own time from the comfort of your own home, we have a link up and ready to share with any volunteers who sign up for it! Sign up: https://www.carolineforcounty.com/get-involved
Thank you for your help connecting us all as we count down with under a month until Election Day! We just started running a new video advertisement on FB and Instagram today - let me know if anyone sees it in their feed :) Also sitting down for an interview with the Daily Sentinel this coming week, to ramp up that local news coverage!"
State Lege Panel on Thursday
Join IMV and friends from across NY at the State Lege Panel happening on Thursday, October 19th starting at 6:30pm on Zoom. Register here. We’ll hear from and learn about coalitions and organizations who advocate for policies at the state level to make NY a better place for everyone to call home. Let’s find out what’s on the horizon with the 2024 state legislative season and how we can make a difference!
Letters to the Editor DEADLINE!
Now is crunch time for Letters to the Editor in support of local candidates. The Daily Sentinel has set Sunday, Oct. 22 as the deadline to receive political letters (supporting a candidate). If you live in Utica, please write in support of Celeste Friend or Julie Gederos, who are running city wide campaigns. If you live in Westmoreland, Kirkland or New Hartford, write in support of Crystal Faria. Caroline Reale needs letters from county leg district 15, including New Hartford and a bit of Utica, and Shelly Garner needs letters for her Rome Common Council race. If you need help getting started on your letter or knowing where to send it, we can connect you to our IMV LTE workgroup. Email: IndvisibleMV@gmail.com.
Also, kudos to our LTE Workgroup leader, Dick Meili, whose letter about Brandon Williams' misleading statements on energy was published in the Sentinel on Oct. 10th. And check out this outstanding letter about Celeste written by Heather Wasielewski that appeared in the Sentinel yesterday!
Big Success: Freedom to Learn and Love Event
Our event in Clinton last Saturday celebrating our values was a huge success. Many young families came, and held colorful signs. If you want to get a sense for the joy of this LGBTQ supportive event opposite the Moms for Liberty book banning, anti-LGBTQ symposium, please check out this wonderful article (with photos) published in The Utica Phoenix.
We Need to Talk about Brandon Williams
In case you missed it, here was local some coverage of our No More Williams Wednesday event with Citizen Action earlier this month. We will intensify our pressure on Williams after the 2023 election is over, and need even more Indivisibles to show up in pickets and rallies calling out his extremism. He is a threat to our shared values on many counts, as we saw in his email update earlier this week in which he stated falsely that "progressives" have allowed hundreds of Hamas terrorists to "infiltrate" the US (via the southern border) and advocates extreme measures in response.
He is using the horrific attacks on Israel for his own anti-immigrant messaging. It's dangerous language coming from someone who says he is a calm, level-headed, emotionally steady man. Of course, we know he's no more level-headed than his hero Donald Trump; Brandon Williams is a Christian nationalist who would be happy to see a ban on abortion, laws against trans existence, and the end of public education in America. It's what so many of you stood against last Saturday on the village green in Clinton when you also stood for LGBTQ people, books, teachers, and librarians.
Now we are asking you to do what you can to help elect local Democrats locally as a bulwark against MAGA extremism. You share our values of care, community, inclusion, and respect for the rule of law which guarantees rights and dignity for all. Please consider what you can do to:
impact the results of the 2023 elections,
build community and trust in our political institutions, and then
save democracy once again in 2024.
For now, we ask that you:
write postcards and letters to the editor by the Oct. 22 deadline,
volunteer for Harvest on the Hill on Oct. 28th, and
knock as many doors as you can for our IMV supported local candidates.
Your WHY is the same as it has always been:
"Democracy is not a spectator sport."
Thanks for being part of the work when you could take a pass and sit this one out!
Follow us on Twitter using @indivisiblemv and of course our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group.
