John Calabrese, Field Organize – Menomonie

I invite you to put the headlines aside for a moment, take a deep breath, and join me right here.

Just a few weeks ago on April 2nd, a crowd watched election results roll in from a local bar in downtown Menomonie. GROWW’s All in Favor team had just wrapped up our second spring campaign to endorse and elect representatives to our town, county and school boards.

Over the previous months, I worked with teams in Dunn, Pierce, Polk, and St Croix counties who knocked on more than 900 doors and made nearly 1600 phone calls to neighbors to get our communities’ skin in the game. These offices hold sway over everything from our local businesses and farms to the housing and water we depend on to the schools where our kids learn and grow. If western Wisconsin is going to be a place where we can all thrive, we need to be able to lead year-round from these powerful positions, and the All in Favor county teams know this better than most.

Too many of our people are struggling to get by, facing rising costs, crappy housing, and worry about our kids’ falling behind or moving away. Meanwhile, corporate interests have worked for years to conspire with some political insiders to rig the rules of our economy and governments to serve themselves and their friends.

All spring long, I watched All in Favor leaders – local, everyday people – step up as community members as well as candidates. We took responsibility for our future by embracing age-old organizing practices. I saw people who had never knocked on a door walk up their neighbors’ front steps. I witnessed leaders who started out scared to make a phone call dial their first number and go on to talk with dozens of other voters. One conversation and then another, their leadership paid off.

On election night, thanks in part to our organizing, Western Wisconsin watched as 5 more GROWW endorsed candidates were elected to office, ready to get to work.