| (Submitted photo) Mary Marek (left) of Hills speaks with President-elect Barack Obama. |
College student faints, then talks with candidate
My daughter’s friend, Samantha Meier, was attending Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge when the college asked for volunteers to help set up for a campaign rally for Barack Obama last year. She just thought she would be setting up chairs or something like that, but they decided to put her on the stage behind Obama with a group of other people while he was delivering his speech.
She said everything was going good but part way through the speech she starting feeling faint. She started to leave the stage but fainted. She woke up with an oxygen mask on and the Secret Service and the doctor who accompanied Obama were standing around her. They got her out into the hallway on a chair, called an ambulance and sent her to the hospital with a Obama campaign person accompanying her.
At the hospital, they checked her out and found out she had been dehydrated and that the lights on the stage compounded the problem. After a few hours at the hospital, she was discharged and went back to her dorm room. As she was sitting there, her cell phone rang and the caller asked if he was talking to Sam Meier.
She responded with a yes, not knowing who it was, and the caller proceeded to say that it was Barack Obama. He was calling to find out how she was doing and if she was OK. He also apologized for talking so long. He said that sometime he talks too long and forgets about the people behind him having to stand there for so long.
— Jean Fish, Shellsburg
The feeling was hope after a Coe appearance
It’s exciting to skip class with your fellow college students, and it’s an absolute thrill if it’s to have the opportunity to see a political candidate.
President-elect Barack Obama campaigned in Iowa many times and, for one event, the East Coast glamour came with him. MySpace and MTV joined forces to urge the youths of the nation to vote, bringing them live-streaming, live blogging and live debates of presidential candidates, and Obama was scheduled to appear live from Coe College’s theater stage and answer questions from students.
When we left the event, my friends and I lamented that he likely wouldn’t be the next president of the United States — but even in this talk we were excited. Because even if it all looked in favor of Hillary Clinton, part of us wrenched our hands in an expectation of some complete turnover, of a small percentage suddenly gaining and winning the whole world, of earth-shattering changes from what we had this day.
Looking back, I can finally put a name to that feeling — it is hope.
— Sarah Wood, Milwaukee
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