A RISING TIDE PREPARES FOR ITS LARGEST CLASS EVER AMIDST AN EXCITING CAMPAIGN SEASON
by A Rising Tide, Sep 10, 2008For Immediate Release
September 10, 2008
(Portland) – A Rising Tide…, a campaign leadership-training institute for young Mainers, will hold its 13th and largest campaign-training seminar this weekend in Portland. Thirty young people, hailing from towns all across the state and representing both major political parties, will participate in the program.
ART is a not-for-profit, non-partisan, free campaign leadership institute. Since its creation four years ago, ART has held twelve campaign-training seminars all across the state, graduating young people from 13 of Maine's 16 counties. Its thirteenth training camp is scheduled to take place at USM-Portland on September 12th, 13th and 14th in Payson Smith Hall, room #1, starting at 4pm on Friday.
"This election cycle is a very exciting time to get involved in politics no matter what end of the political spectrum you're on," said Sen. Ethan Strimling, Board President of the four-year-old A Rising Tide. "Maine's young people want to be on the front lines, ready to influence change. A Rising Tide works to make sure they have the tools to be successful."
Young people come to ART trainings to learn the nuts and bolts of running a grassroots political campaign. In return for the training, graduates are required to perform a minimum of 40 hours volunteering for a campaign or organization of their choice.
To date, 169 ART graduates, representing every major political party, logged over 15,000 hours of their time for the cause or candidate most important to them. 75 Rising Tide graduates have volunteered or worked on almost 100 winning campaigns and 48 graduates were hired by a campaign after their training. Eight grads even won their own elections to public office, and 4 more are on their way this November.
ART trainings cover topics such as electoral targeting, candidate and opposition research, media training and message development, direct mail, volunteer recruitment, Get-Out-The-Vote, and planning a campaign budget. Training segments are taught by some of Maine's veteran campaign superstars like Dennis Bailey, President of Savvy, Inc, Bowdoin College Professor and pollster, Chris Potholm, and Republican political consultant and strategist, Roy Lenardson.
Anya Trundy, a 2004 Rising Tide grad from Hebron, Maine, will be one of the training facilitators this Friday night. After working in Gov. Baldacci's office and later for the Maine Democratic Party as a field organizer, Anya is now at the helm of the Democratic Party's coordinated campaign as Operations Director.
"I majored in political science in college, but the tools that I learned at A Rising Tide are the basics that I've gone back to time and time again in my professional campaign work. Sticking to the fundamentals I learned at ART, I organized Bowdoin students to put the Democratic candidate over the top in several town council elections. What I learned from ART changed the outcome of these elections and my community." - Anya Trundy
Also essential to ART's success is the fact that the organization is non-partisan. "Bringing together young people from different political parties is not only good for them but also good for Maine." Said ART Executive Director, Corey Hascall. "We've welcomed mentors from both sides of the political spectrum to our training weekends; From Senators Chandler Woodcock and Phil Bartlett, to Representatives Janet Mills and Joan Nass."
For more information visit www.arisingtidemaine.com
CONTACT: Corey Hascall, ART Executive Director, 207.650.2343
