Main Street

Why I’m a Community Organizer

by Elizabeth Holmbeck—Minnesota

One day while canvassing, I ran into a elderly fellow who lived alone with his dog named Pat. As I talked with him about the issues that we work on, he was silent. When I stopped, he told me I did a good job and asked me in for tea. He was delightful — he told me of his days as a young man going door to door as a traveling salesman some fifty years ago, he talked about his service in World War II, and we discussed the current times. He told me that at 85 years of age he had been dropped by the VA medical because there were too many wounded vets coming home from the current conflict. My heart went out to him as someone who had no family or friends around him in his age and now had no healthcare. He was so thankful for what we did and told me to keep up the good work — and that is what I do!