Amazing Postcard Campaign!

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Created on Wednesday, 18 May 2011 15:41

What a great postcard campaign! The energy at Lumen Christi parish in St. Paul was high-octane and their ministry fair turned out to be the perfect setting for this postcard campaign which ran both Saturday night and Sunday morning. I was happy to be there Sunday morning and want to say congratulations to Mike Harley, Sr. Marion Welter, Ann Maley, Jeff Maciej, Fr. Paul Feela and others who worked at the tables and helped produce the following written notes to lawmakers:

• Governor Dayton: 94 cards • Senator Cohen: 77 cards • Representative Paymar: 72 cards • Representative Murphy: 8 cards • Representative Hansen: 3 cards • Senator Metzen: 3 cards • Representative Moran: 1 card

(Also St. Frances Cabrini parish used Lumen Christi's cards as a template and did a campaign of their own today focused on the governor only. They generated 125 cards! Hats off to Adam Robinson at Catholic Charities OSJ for his leadership and support of these parish initiatives!)

One of the elements of this campaign I appreciated was giving people a comfortable space and time to write their postcards and the encouragement to "write from the heart" and to use one's own words. So many times postcards have pre-written messages that detract from their desired impact. Instead, Lumen Christi organizers had postcards addressed and ready-to-go but with plenty of room for each person to write their own thoughts. On the table were topic sentences to get the ball rolling for anyone with writer's block. Examples included:

• Govern with compassion...
• A balanced budget means the weight is distributed fairly. Make sure the poor to bear an unnecessary burden...
• We know this is going to require some tough decisions. I'm behind you even if it means I have to pay higher taxes...
• It's going to take a combination of Reform, Reduction, and Revenue. Be Strong....

And, of course, the resource table had a laptop for helping people find their own legislators and lots of handouts and a bowl of chocolates. Have you seen a better banner? Do it! Justice!  At Lumen Christi, they do!

Brian Rusche, executive director