"As grass-roots as it gets." MoveOn's Hungry for Change Bake Sale! (With Miami photos.)

What a wonderful day. When the morning broke, we did not know each other at all.  Now we share the bonds of common activism.  We baked, we congregated, and we raised money for MoveOn.  It created a very small-town experience in a very large city.  

Follow me over the break for the photos and the fun.

I got an email about two weeks ago from MoveOn, inviting me to host an event for the nationwide Hungry for Change Bake Sale.  It sounded like a swell way to spend a Summer Solstice Saturday, so I went for it.  Even though my life has been rather hectic lately, Nina and I got the basics in order and got things together in time for the big day.  The MoveOn.org website served as a hub, and 12 people signed up to help bake and sell.  

A good time was had by all, in the sunny brilliance of the Magic City.

We unloaded Betty, our Mini Cooper, and set the scene.  This included a hand-drawn shirt that Nina finished last night, just in time.

Just as soon as we had smoothed out the tablecloth, our new friends began arriving and introducing themselves.  The smell of yummy homemade goodness filled the Miami morning.

Rachel had been baking with her teenagers, who will be 18 in time for November!  She took some extra registration forms home for their friends.

Mike brought enough chocolate chip goodness that we get to finish selling two more plates tonight around our building!

Jason and Donna were like all of us; deeply enjoying the conversation with like-minded new friends and raring to go into November with as many events as we can organize.  We can win Florida by grass-roots force.  Yes we can.

The Miami Herald showed up for interviews and photographs!  Judy is getting questioned here, and she was so valuable for our event, in so many ways.  She brought an extra table, she printed extra signs, and she was a great help with organizing.  Judy is a big Hillary fan, she was angry at MoveOn when they endorsed Obama, but now she is working her heart out at our side.

It was big fun.  William (on the left) is deeply involved in local Democratic politics and he helped us all with some great connections.  We are all more involved today than we were yesterday.

Jenny had the coolest thing: young kids who are growing up exposed to grass roots activism.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Unless it was Shauna bringing her two teenagers, Aaron and Brittanie, for an afternoon of involvement, working for Change.

This little girl was a customer, and her grandmother was fired up.  This little girl's father is in the Army, just finishing boot camp.  This little girl needs all our efforts, really badly, to keep her father safe.  We all talked for a while about the new MoveOn commercial with baby Alex.  We all realized how important these issues are, and how desperately we need to win the election in November.

It was a wonderful way to spend the day, and the money we raised seemed secondary to the connections we made.  We created an email list, and we are all looking forward to getting more and more involved with local groups and the General Election.  It was sweet, and it was real.  Like William told me as we enjoyed each other's company for the first time:

"This is as grass-roots as it gets."