KIDS FOR OBAMA

dwan from louisiana: a cool kid for obama and a president in the making

Young Dwan from Louisiana has been an Obama supporter since last spring.  After seeing the Senator on t.v., he wrote him a letter, spelling out the words on his own:

dear  mr. obama 

I   am  a   seven year old  boy    and   my   name   is    Dwan   and   I   am   your  big  st   fan   mr.  obama   you  now   I  like   you    because   I   see you  at  tv   and  in  my   dreme …  thank you  mr.  obama   …   I wish you  can  be  president.

Senator Obama wrote back to Dwan; the letter is shown in the picture of the Dwan (left). 

Dwan's mom, Addoree wrote to me to say that last weekend, Dwan was out campaigning for his candidate.  She said:

My son is 7 years old and he considers himself Obama's biggest fan!  I really feel like this is amazing because even though I am an Obama supporter, I don't let the political scene consume me.  Nevertheless, my son took his own money and purchased a magazine about Obama and he wants to visit him.  He talks about him constantly.

When he is asked why he like Obama, he states that 'he is going to make the world better.'  He also says that he is going to get more jobs and better education.  Dwan tells everyone that he is going to be President of the United States when he grows up.  He watches Obama's speeches on YouTube and pretends that he is practicing his speech. (lol)

I always try to encourage my child, but I just want Senator Obama to know that my child would probably have not had these type of aspirations if Obama would not have made this decision to make a difference.  My heart has become so full of appreciation to Senator Obama (soon to be President Obama) for the positivity and hope that he has brought to my 7-year-old son's life.

Congrats, Dwan, on your volunteer campaign work and on your dreams and aspirations!  And congrats, Addoree, on raising such a responsible, enthusiastic son!

yes we carve: kids use halloween pumpkins to show their support of barack obama

At the very clever website Yes We Carve, you'll find many more photos of Barack O'Lanterns, as well as instructions and stencils for making them.

The site is also collecting and publishing a list of funny sayings about the pumpkins, such as "Glowbama," "The Change We Seed," and the "Squashcity of Hope."

After you create yours, be sure to send a photo of yourself with your masterpiece to Yes We Carve. (How about a Kids for Obama pumpkin?)  You might even win a prize!  Safety suggestion: Only share your first name and the name of your state.

rockabelles rock the vote for obama

Get Out the Vote

We Got the Mo

obama-bama bo-bama tee-shirts for kids (and adults) from lowercase tee

The brilliant Chicago design firm Coudal Partners launched a spin-off business, Lowercase Tee, whose offerings include these political tee-shirts.  The red shirt, worn by Grace from Chicago, was created for the 2004 election and the blue shirt, worn by Maya from Los Angeles, was created for this year's race. 

Whether you're from a red state or a blue state, you can buy the shirts here.  According to Coudal Partners, the shirts were the kids' ideas: "They may not be able to vote yet, but kids have plenty of thoughts about how things should work. After a few conversations with our children about politics and elections, we were struck by how much they had to say. They began to come up with ideas for some t-shirts and Lowercase Tee was born. Lowercase Tee thinks that while there are plenty of kids' tees out there, you can click through a thousand of them without finding anything nice and simple and fun. Pretty soon the grownups around here began to ask for our tees and we added adult sizes to the mix. We have some great stuff planned for the future butright now we're listening to the kids."

The photos and shirts are copyrighted by Coudal Partners, with whom I have no affilition--only admiration.  Other photos of cool kids for Obama wearing the shirts can be found on Flickr.

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Know some young people or young people at heart who are Kids for Obama?  Help us spread the word.  Please forward a link to this blog and tell them they can subscribe via email by clicking here.  Thanks!

~Celeste, Eli's mom

 

nine-year-old supporter asks obama about what it takes to become president

Kameryn Garel-McCullough is the young questioner (and aspiring President).  Ginny Skalski captured it on video.

Here Kameryn describes the experience of getting chosen to ask the question.

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Know some young people or young people at heart who are Kids for Obama?  Please help us spread the word!  Please forward a link to this blog and tell them they can subscribe via email by clicking here.  Thanks!

~Celeste, Eli's mom

a texas kid for obama reviews "barack obama, an american story"

Upon Googling "Kids for Obama," I found a delightful blog by a young member of a Kids for Obama group that is part of TexansforObama.com.  After a couple of phone calls and fun conversations,  I received permission from Shawn Buchanan, the mom of Tomori Kailani Buchanan (pictured here with a Dog for Obama named "Wish") to reprint the book review below.

"Remember I was reading a book about Barack Obama for little kids. Well I finished the book. It was very nice, with just a few things I did not like. Oh I want to remind you the title is BARACK OBAMA, AN AMERICAN STORY.

Every page almost was this person is white or this person is black. People are not colors. In my family we say African or European, Asian or Native American. BLACK and WHITE is just crazy.

Also, when he was growing up he felt like he had a different life, I also feel I have a different life.

Some of the words are difficult to read like the Hawaiian words and Asian words, but I am only 6 so you older kids will not have a problem.

Barack Obama was so cute when he was a little kid. But some of the photos look sad. You can not believe this little boy is a big man now.

That's all I guess    Okay Bye Bye"  TOMORI

Thanks to David Kobierowski, a founder of Texans for Obama, for connecting me with Tomori's mom  Shawn.  (Both David and Shawn sounded tired from hard work but extremely excited about the March 4 primary and determined to win.) Shawn also told me about this delightful blog post by a fellow Chicagoan named Sarah Ramey.  In reporting on a number of Kids for Obama, Sarah wrote that:

"Tomori age 6, ...invented "Take an Adult to Vote Day," with her local Austin,TX Kids for Obama chapter.  Not only that, Obama also inspired Tomori to organize an Obama Colorado River Cleanup community service day, and she's even having kid-friendly versions of the Bill of Rights and the preamble to the Constitution printed up to give to local kids because she's passionate about letting everyone know -- 'Kids have rights too!'"''

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Know some young people or young people at heart who are Kids for Obama?  Please help us spread the word!  Please forward a link to this blog and tell them they can subscribe via email by clicking here.  Thanks!

~Celeste, Eli's mom

kids for kerry founder, 15-year-old ilana wexler, endorses obama

In 2004, when Senator John Kerry was the Democratic nominee for President, 11-year-old Ilana Wexler started a group called Kids for Kerry.  She was  noticed by the people campaigning for Kerry and even asked to make a speech at the Democratic convention (click here to watch it).  In that speech she said, "Kids, this is about our futures. Make sure all the adults you know get out and vote."

And the Democrats didn't forget about her.  For the 2008 election, Senator Clinton worked hard to get Ilana to endorse her, but Ilana decided to endorse Senator Obama.   Ilana is now 15 and a student at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California.  She is working to get more people, especially young adults, to vote. Photo, right, by Mark Costantini of the San Francisco Chronicle.)

~Celeste, Eli's mom

a super kid on super tuesday: a 12-year-old precinct captain for obama

Neal Kornreich, a 12-year-old boy living in Boulder, Colorado, is a precinct captain for Barack Obama.  There was a story about Neal in the Rocky Mountain News on Super Tuesday, February 5, when Colorado had its caucuses.  (Obama won!)

As a precinct captain, Neal makes calls and visits people at their houses (he always goes with an adult) and encourages them to vote for Obama. 

After doing a report about him, Neal found that many of his and Obama's views were the same. Neal wrote a letter to Obama stating issues in the world that meant a lot to him, and after a bicycle accident that put him in a wheelchair, he received a personal letter from Barack Obama himself. Now Neal is back on his feet going door to door to inform people about Obama.

When asked about his beliefs about Obama, he said, "He's the symbol of a new generation. He believes in ending the war in Iraq responsibly - we need to make sure it doesn't end up in mass domestic chaos....if we elect the right people and we help the President, we can turn this country around."

Here is a cool slide show with audio showing Neal in action.  It will give you some good ideas for what YOU can say and do in order to get votes for Obama.

Great job, Neal, and keep up your support for Obama!

~ Eli