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Can you believe it? I cannot. I am sitting here in utter disbelief. Spread The Vote is 4!!
After surviving midterms, a pandemic, the biggest election of all time DURING A PANDEMIC, startup woes, growing pains, a mild amount of exhaustion, and mostly a lot of love and support and team members willing to survive anything, here we are. 4 years old. Amazing.
We have accomplished so much in 4 years. We have obtained ALMOST 7,000 IDs, which is incredible because I still remember running around screaming when we got our first one (in Arlington, VA- hi Chris and Lori!). We are in 17 STATES. We have 18 employees, over 1000 trained staff members, and over 500 local, state, and national partners. I can't believe it. Some of our staff have been with us literally since day 1- Emma, our Research Director and Marissa, our General Counsel and Comms Director (hashtag small org) were part of our very first group of volunteers! And over half of the rest of the team have been with us since 2018 and are the reason that we are still here today.
I also can't believe that so many of our volunteers have been with us since we started in their states! Chris and Lori, who got those precious first IDs, are still going strong. Carol, who got a record 562 IDs (!!!!!) just took some well deserved time off to spend with her granddaughter. Deaune and Tara in Charlottesville, Lou and the incredible Fort Worth team still run the most incredible ID tabling in the game (their secret? Girl Scout cookies), and so many more. And some of our amazing partners have been with us for so long that we consider them part of the family like Wan Qi and the New Orleans Public Defenders, True Worth in FTW, and ASPAN in Arlington, Virginia.
Our staff, partners, and volunteers weathered the pandemic storm with ingenuity and fortitude and as soon as each person gets vaxxed and cleared they are racing to get back on the ground. It's so inspiring to see the passion and determination of all of these incredible people.
At 4 years old we are stronger than ever, serving more people in more states, building more and bigger partnerships every day, and, most of all, still working hard 365 days a year to help everyone we can get the IDs they need to change their lives.
And, of course, we could never have done any of this without your support. Thank you for sticking with us and, as we navigate through some of the biggest voting rights fights of our lives, head back into the streets as the pandemic ends, and work towards the next election and the election after that, we hope you'll stay on our team.
Thank you, and happy 4th birthday to all of us.
Kat
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