YALLA VOTE ‘08 Our Voice. Our Future.

This past weekend, AAI Michigan staff and volunteers took part in the Dearborn Arab International Festival, an annual event attended by over 100,000 visitors. The Yalla Vote campaign was visible throughout the festival, as volunteers wearing Yalla Vote t-shirts were a constant presence, registering hundreds of people to sign AAI’s National Petition. Our AAI booth was well stocked with buttons and signs that were quite popular with festival attendees, and several local dignitaries stopped by to thank AAI for doing “good work”, including Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly and 19th Circuit Court Judge Mark Somers.

Overall, this past weekend was the highlight of my experience as a field organizer with the Yalla Vote campaign, as I got to connect with dozens of community members on an individual level, and discuss the importance of voting and the community’s involvement in the political system. What was particularly rewarding for me was to meet the many out of state visitors to the festival, including many Arab-Americans from Chicago, Ohio and Indiana, who made the trek out to Dearborn to take part in the largest gathering of Arab-Americans in the country. There was a great sense of camaraderie and community that I felt being at the festival, and seeing the diversity of the Arab American community, and the great desire for political change that was in the air.

AAI Intern Sandra Jaward adds her reflections on this past weekend in Dearborn:

This past weekend I had the opportunity to work at the Yalla Vote booth at the Arab Festival. I had the chance to interact with the hundreds of people that passed by inquiring about the AAI and the Yalla Vote campaign which was a nice experience. I recruited a few volunteers who were enthusiastic about helping the AAI so together we provided people passing the booth with informational packets about candidates, elections, and Arab Americans. We also encouraged anyone who passed by to register to vote, sign up as a volunteer, and sign our petition. I anticipate that if we attend more events like this in the future than we can gather more petition signatures as well as inform the wider public about the AAI and get them involved in politics.