DNCC and the Community

Convention Conversations:

After logging more than 3,500 miles and visiting eight cities throughout the Intermountain West, the DNCC completed a series of community forums with back-to-back events in downtown Denver in June. The series – “Convention Conversations: A Traveling Forum Sponsored by the DNCC” –provided a venue to answer questions and offer information to local residents and businesses interested in the historic regional opportunities presented by Denver’s hosting of the Democratic National Convention in August. 

Thousands of residents in Denver, the state of Colorado and states throughout the Intermountain West took advantage of the opportunity for direct communication with top Convention organizers to ask questions, share ideas and find out how to get involved.

Plans for the 2008 Democratic National Convention have long included a commitment to bring more people into the Convention experience than ever before – and that continues to be our goal. At the most recent Denver forums, Convention leadership unveiled a line-up of official events, which will allow Denver-area residents and the general public to participate in the Convention experience.

Denver played host to the inaugural event in September. Mayor John W. Hickenlooper joined Daughtry for the forum geared toward Denver residents and representatives of the area’s diverse business community. Daughtry was joined by Governor Bill Ritter for a forum in Pueblo, Colo. the following month and in December by Colorado House Majority Leader Alice Madden in Boulder, Colo. In January, Daughtry traveled to Las Vegas for a forum with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and in March, she was joined by U.S. Representative Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) in Lakewood, Colo. In April, Daughtry hosted forums in Salt Lake City with Mayor Ralph Becker and in Colorado Springs with State Senator John Morse. And in the last stop before closing the series in Denver, Daughtry traveled to Colorado’s Western Slope for a forum with State Representative Bernie Buescher in Grand Junction.

DNCC Service Days: 

As part of an ongoing effort to give back to the community hosting the 2008 Democratic National Convention, DNCC staff recently participated in a “build brigade” to construct a home for a wounded Iraq war veteran. The project marked the most recent outing in a series of “DNCC Service Days” focused on three areas of importance to the Denver-area community: youth, environmental projects and the combined issues of homelessness and hunger. The build brigade is a project of Homes for Our Troops, a non-profit organization committed to building specially-adapted homes across the United States for severely wounded American troops. The house in Golden, Colo. will be home to SSG Travis Strong, his wife Misty and their two children.

The DNCC also recently announced plans for a “Delegate Service Day” on Wednesday, August 27^th, coordinated in conjunction with Democrats Work, Metro Volunteers and Volunteers of America. Delegates will participate in volunteer projects at sites throughout the Denver metro area, ranging from reading to children to neighborhood and park cleanup and tree care. These events will allow delegates to both contribute to and celebrate the people and organizations making positive change and strengthening communities in the city hosting this historic Convention.

To date, Convention leaders and staff have contributed more than 650 hours to a variety of local efforts. “DNCC Service Days” projects have included:

• Helping to plant more than 400 trees in Northwest Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood in recognition of Earth Day;
• A clean-up project and goods sorting at the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denver;
• Helping to prepare an application for $400,000 in State Primary Care funds for Clínica Tepeyac, a community-based health clinic that serves uninsured and underinsured families;
• A painting and crafts project with Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean for students at Manual High School;
• Preparing and serving a special holiday breakfast with Colorado’s First Lady Jeannie Ritter for homeless and runaway youth at Urban Peak;
• Sorting canned goods with Atlanta Mayor and Convention Co-Chair Shirley Franklin at The Crossing, a Denver Rescue Mission facility;
• Working with a Montessori school in Five Points on an indoor activity with children and a playground area clean-up;
• Facilitating a soccer skills camp with local middle school students and Colorado Rapids players; and
• Spreading mulch around trees in City Park as part of a project focused on environmentalism.