Presentation comments by George and Myra Gordon, Co-Chairs of Roosevelt Award Committee: 

Myra:  Hello, everyone.  It’s a great honor for George and me to present this year’s Roosevelt Awards. That’s “awards” plural, because this year, the nominations committee unanimously selected two winners.

First, we’d like to acknowledge the members of the Roosevelt award committee that we worked with:  Karla Bailey-Smith, Wayne Karplus, Joyce Kaye, Logan Smith, and Tom Whitt.  Please join us in thanking them.  

We also want to thank the seventeen McLean County Democrats who made nominations for the Award!  It was clear to the committee that an amazing amount of good work was done in 2018 for the Democratic party, and – more important – that we all appreciate the efforts of our fellow Democrats!

Our first Award winner is someone who has made so many contributions that it would take all night for us to tell you about all of them. She’s the one who coined the term “orphan precincts,” and recruited numerous people to run for precinct committeeperson. She collaborated with other party members to run precinct leader workshops and training sessions. 

She conducted multiple information sessions so that county Democrats members could respond, and contribute, to the proposed party by-laws.  Going back several years, she assisted numerous local Democratic candidates as they prepared for upcoming elections.  She was personally involved with walking precincts, phone banking, making political buttons (at her own expense), and planning and supporting fund-raisers for our candidates. 

She was deeply involved, locally and statewide, in the successful effort to get Illinois to support – finally– ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.  She also organized local activists to communicate with the 18th District Republican Congressman about important legislation.  And as if that wasn’t enough, she brought her incredible academic grant-writing skills to drafting the Blue Wave grant from the JB Pritzker campaign that brought unprecedented financial assistance to our county efforts. She also was part of broader fundraising and planning efforts with other key local Democrats – efforts which have provided a sound financial basis on which the party can build.

She continues to work just as hard today as she did last year. Our first Roosevelt Award winner is Kay Moss!!

George:  Our second Honoring the Roosevelts Award winner also made significant contributions in 2018 – contributions that mattered hugely to all of us!  When we started looking for a new, permanent headquarters, we knew that someone would have to take responsibility for its operation and for managing multiple concurrent activities that would be going on in an election year.  This individual, with her husband, stepped up – big-time!

She volunteered to open and run, every day, the West Washington Street party office. She got generous donations and supplies from party supporters to get the new headquarters cleaned up and equipped.  By reaching out to others, she kept food, coffee, and soft drinks available for campaign workers and party committees as our candidates ran their campaigns.  Every single day, she made certain there were drinking cups on hand, paper plates on which to serve food, plenty of coffee to keep us hyped (like we weren’t already!), paper towels – allof the necessities!  She did everything pleasantly, patiently, and supportively. She brought folks together in a special caring atmosphere— often at her own expense, and certainly by always being there.

She has continued to work tirelessly in and for our beautiful new headquarters in downtown Bloomington. She has put in hundreds of hours, and refuses to be paid for any of them.

Her engaging demeanor gave rise to what amounted to a party mantra:  “Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!”  Tonight it’s our pleasure and privilege to announce our second Award winner for 2019:  Lola Equality Augstin!!