Michelle Obama encourages spouses to volunteer - turn annual WH picnic into community service event.

[jefferson_dem]

Ok. I've just fallen (more) in love with this woman, and her husband. We are so fortunate.

Michelle Obama encourages spouses to volunteer
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE – 46 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama hopes to turn an annual White House picnic for members of Congress into a community service event for lawmakers and their families.

She proposed the idea to congressional spouses on Thursday during their annual first lady's luncheon.

Since moving to the White House, Mrs. Obama has promoted the issue by volunteering herself.

On Wednesday, she and Jill Biden, the vice president's wife, and more than 100 congressional spouses spent the afternoon at a food bank bagging lunches for hungry children. She also has helped serve meals at a soup kitchen and assemble care packages for U.S. troops.

The annual Congressional Picnic is scheduled for June 25. The event provides a relaxed environment where lawmakers, the president and administration officials can set aside their policy differences and socialize over food and music on the South Lawn.

"We can bring our husbands and our wives, our children and our grandchildren together as we did yesterday and rally around a common cause," Mrs. Obama said during her luncheon speech at a hotel. "This would be a powerful message that we could send to people around the country, that they saw all of our families come together here in D.C."

Thursday's luncheon was closed to the media, but the White House released a transcript of the speech.

In the remarks, Mrs. Obama also shed a little more light on her new White House life.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igDOKmv4O7OVfRr43JBsZ6TQifdQD97T2H383

[Kdillard]

1. Excellent idea :) Go Michelle. She is doing the US proud as First lady.

[firedupdem]

2. Always leading by example. Great Idea first lady! n/t

[Clio the Leo]

3. I was wondering how this event was gonna go...

... I didn't have too much time to read about this organization but, on first glance, it reeked of a Stepford Wives club (again, I could be wrong and please correct me if I am.)

The whole thing just seemed very unObamariffic.

[Berry Cool]

4. Husbands of lawmakers should be encouraged to participate and not skip out.

Not as many of 'em to be sure, but no one said this was a "wives only" organization.

[JayMusgrove]

5. Soon she will be called a socialist! I can here it now!

WOW, this should take about 3 hours before Faux Snooze turns this into a call for socialism from the First Lady.

[jefferson_dem]

6. Ya know what's funny?

I first saw a report on this at FauxNews.

Same AP story but they carry the headline "Michelle Obama Seeks to Turn Congressional Picnic Into Community Event"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/30/michelle-obama-seeks-turn-congressional-picnic-community-event/

Ergo.

[Cha]

7. I love the way they keep

coming up with Positive Powerful Messages for Americans who care about their country.

[Ocracoker16]

8. What a great idea!

I hope that Michelle will give us details soon on the service project that the congressional leaders and spouses will be participating in. I am glad to see that Michelle not only helps out in the community on her own but tries to find ways to get others involved in these worthwhile projects.