General Discussion

SharonClark

(10,014 posts) Mon Sep 14, 2020, 03:14 PM Sep 2020

Polk County Iowa Steak Fry 2020 (drive-in style) another success!

I'm so proud of my county organization. They pulled off another successful Steak Fry with 900 in attendance and 300 watching virtually. From the Polk County Democrats Weekly Update:

The 2020 Steak Fry
After three days of miserable set-up in three days of miserable rain, our 2020 Steak Fry defied weather reports and wound up being a gorgeous day just in the nick of time. The result was unprecedented organizing and a breathtaking shot of energy for everyone involved because of the tireless work of more than 150 volunteers. 1,200 tickets were sold. 900 people attended our big day in person and 300 people watched on our virtual link. You can see all the coverage from the Des Moines Register, KCCI, and WHO.

When the gates opened at 4, our parking crew led by Tom Leffler, Pat Walters, and Dave Vawter, guided attendees down two lanes of traffic without any more than momentary back-ups. There were signs all along the way courtesy of John Kaiser. Our stations led by LuAnn Pedrick and Rosie Thierer ensured that everyone got their tickets and were checked in. Deb Hansen spent countless hours in the weeks beforehand to create an individualized dashboard food ticket for every attendee. Our food crew, expertly led by Jason Krull, safely packed 900 hot meals in just two hours. Our 16 delivery carts of food and beverages led by Ruth and Scott Thompson made sure that everyone received their meal without having to wait long for delivery to their vehicles.

The pre-program started at 5:00 with videos of campaigns from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama. We also filled it with videos from many of our local and statehouse candidates here in Polk and from across Iowa. It was all produced by the amazing Maryfrances Evans for those in the park and the hundreds watching online. The stage was managed by Jason Crowley and our announcer was the legendary Mary McAdams. Caroline Jones jumped in on social media to make sure we were connecting with all the coverage buzzing around the state through the night.

As always, the entire event was managed from the idea phase several months ago to the clean-up yesterday morning by our Steak Fry leadership team of Lindsay Paulson, Judy Downs, and Peter Crane. Skylar Adamson helped a great deal, too. Because of their work, the Polk County Dems beat our fundraising goals. That will help us to do even more in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign.
Frankly, no one knew how an event like this would work. Other than the DNC, this was certainly one of the largest Democratic events since the pandemic began. The massive 2019 Steak Fry was really just a much, much bigger version of the ones that came before it. We could plan all we want (and we certainly did), but there really wasn’t much precedent for parking a drive-in event with this many cars and this many delivered meals and this many virtual attendees and so much else. It all went off without a hitch. That proves how exceptional our volunteers are. It also shows how serious every single person was about delivering our last big celebration before the general election in a safe way. Thank you to everyone who gave so much to make it possible.

Our Guests
We were fortunate to have a rockstar lineup of both in-person and virtual speakers. The Queen Tina Haase Findlay opened with both “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and the National Anthem. Mary Chapman led our Pledge of Allegiance along with a beautiful letter from President Barack Obama which you can read below. Connie Ryan with the Interfaith Alliance led us for an invocation and Iowa State Education Association President Mike Beranek reminded us of the sacrifices being made by Iowa students and teachers. We were joined in person by our Congresswoman Cindy Axne and our U.S. Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield. J.D. Scholten joined us for a stirring virtual speech on the need to focus more outreach on rural Iowa.

Congressman and First Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Ruben Gallego spoke of the stakes before us as both a son of immigrants and a veteran. Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke fondly of his time in Iowa and why he was committed to helping take back the White House this fall. Our Speaker Nancy Pelosi reminded us that she’s joined us so much each of the past three years that she’s starting to feel like a regular. She praised our volunteers for all their hard work and reminded us to “keep calm and carry on.” Our final headliner was our vice presidential nominee, Senator Kamala Harris. She talked about her commitment to the Iowa ticket and reminded all of us why we’ve admired her so much over the past few years. As always, Representative Ako Abdul-Samad brought the house down with his call to action in the way only he can do. We closed it all out with some good, old-fashioned red, white, and blue fireworks.

Our Big Community
Like it does every year, the Steak Fry reminded us why we work so hard as Democrats. All the organizing from so many people paid off in a big way. We got to see our kids enjoy the fireworks and people of all ages enjoy the meals and an amazing program. For the first time in more than half a year, many of us got to see each other for the first time.

Our little community all came together in a big way. As in years past, we built a temporary mini-city and tore it all down until next year. Because of the generosity of both our small and bigger donors, everyone who needed a ticket got one. That includes 40 student tickets that we were able to provide for free.

So many of our elected officials pitched in to make it work, too. Urbandale Councilwoman Bridget Carberry Montgomery and Des Moines Councilman Carl Voss delivered meals on golf carts. Amy Tagliareni with the Ankeny School Board helped serve meals. Johnston City Council members Rhonda Martin and Suresh Reddy and County Supervisor candidate Betty Devine helped park cars. Our sisters and brothers in labor pitched in big time as well. The IBEW was a major event donor and their members volunteered throughout the day. The Des Moines Firefighters Local 4 helped build the event and loaned their Biden firetruck.

In a weekend where Donald Trump was holding shoulder to shoulder rallies without masks, we showed how folks could still gather in a safe and fun way. It was a smashing success, but I truly hope we can be back to normal for a big Steak Fry next year when we’ll be gearing up for at least a gubernatorial and Senate primary for 2022.