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Conversation & Comraderie

 For those of us who weren’t out of town on this beautiful Sunday in August, we had quite a lovely time at Patricia and Tom Connally’s house. The Connally’s opened their beautiful home to close to 50 friends and supporters of Abby for what was aptly titled, Conversation and Comraderie. The weather was perfect, summer was not yet over, and yet it was close enough to fall, that political talk was flowing. School Board members Ed Fendley and Libby Garvey dropped by, as did County Board Chair, Paul Ferguson and County Board Candidate, Mary Hynes. Former School Board Chair and Former Member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Judy Connally and her husband, Dr. Tom Connally also came by, undoubtedly to support Abby but also to say hello to their son Tom and daughter-in-law, Patricia and the three grandchildren. Many thanks to AYD’s Amy Lewis and Jim McBride, and friend of Jim’s, Randy Goldstein. And of course, many thanks to Tom and Patricia for their extraordinary hospitality.

ACDC Chili Cook-Off

The weather gods were also on the side of the Democrats as they held their first major joint campaign event of the year on Labor Day...the Chili Cook Off. Lyon Park was filled with loyal Democrats and hungry chili eaters who had an opportunity to sample chilis made by each of the candidates running for office. Suffice to say, there was very little left of Abby’s A+ white beans and turkey chili by the end of the evening. Entertainment was provided by the ACDC Backyard Band with County Commissioner Ingrid Morroy and her twin sister as the lead singers. Attendees also brought school supplies which were later donated to Arlington students.

Civic Federation Candidates’ Night

Abby participated in the Arlington County Civic Federation Candidates’ Night. She outlined her ABC’s of School Success and emphasized the importance of the School Board and the County Board working together on issues of interest such as capital improvements. The Arlington Sun Gazette gave Abby an “A” for her remarks...leading her husband Stuart to ask if that meant we had to remove all of the “ +’s ” on her campaign material. We assured him that the A+ was here to stay and that she would try even harder next time.

De-lite-ful Dessert Social was absolutely Delightful

Well, if you made it over to Lyon Village Community House yesterday afternoon, you were rewarded with some great ideas for healthy (and not so healthy) desserts, convivial conversation, and an opportunity for your children to run (or hula hoop) off some excess energy. Mother Nature cooperated, everyone was in a festive mood. Even though we had more people then we had planned for, there was still enough dessert to feed a small country.

It was a great opportunity to hear School Board Member, Ed Fendley and Chair, Libby Garvey speak of their admiration for Abby and their hope that she will be joining them on the School Board in the not so distant future.

Mary Hynes, former School Board Chair and current candidate for County Board joined us, as did Judy Connally, former State Delegate and former Chair of the School Board. It was simply a wonderful afternoon for helping Abby in her campaign.

And....the campaign manager has finally learned that, although she is good at some things, photography is not her strength. But she did know enough to get three people to take photos at this event so we are delighted to be able to share some of the pictures with you.

And finally a big thanks to Lisa Allen, Leslie Ann Gerardo, Natalie McDonald, and Betsy Brown for organizing this event, to our huge host committee for sponsoring it, to those of you who volunteered to help at it, and to those of you who came to learn more about Abby and her views. It is with all of your support that we hope to have a victory in May and November beyond.

Thanks to everyone who joined us at our Kick Off Jazz/Tennis Party. We had a great crowd with people stopping by virtually the entire night. (I think our last supporter showed his face around 11:30pm and there was still some food for him)

Over 85 supporters had a chance to play some tennis, listen to some great live jazz, and meet their candidate. And even Abby had some time to play tennis in between talking to all of her supporters, and sharing some early stories about her walks through Arlington neighborhoods. As she said, "Although I had some initial trepidation knocking on doors, people have been largely very gracious and excited about talking to me. It has been a wonderful experience to have the opportunity to talk about my vision for Arlington schools and, even more importantly, to hear about the issues that are important to Arlington residents."

Our erstwhile campaign manager (me) was responsible for taking pictures. I was given this responsibility by folks who have managed previous campaigns, and who made it very clear to me at the outset that THIS WAS MYJOB AND IT WAS IMPORTANT! So I brought two cameras and managed to not know how to operate either of them very well. (Everyone looked as if they were in the Witness Protection Program. So just in case they actually were, we're not sharing the pics this time...) But you can be sure that there will be a photographer at our next events and we will be able to share the experience with those folks who weren't able to attend.

Many thanks to Sharon Witiw and Mary Howard for coordinating this event, to Bart Hawley and his jazz band for playing, to Mel Labatt for donating the space...and to everyone who helped work at the event to make it a success.