User:SamanthaJTW

Obama Advocates is a group that was founded by Loretta (LJ) Williams, Community Organizer, and Theresa Lawrence in June 2007, six months after President Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America in Springfield, IL.

Loretta (LJ) Williams served as Call Center Manager, and Theresa Lawrence served as Call Center Trainer for the Long Beach/Lakewood, CA area during President Obama's campaign, 2007-2008. The call center was the 2nd largest to San Diego in So. California. During six weeks, the call center met and greeted over 600 people who volunteered to help make 59 216 calls on their cell phones, which was terrific considering in 2007-2008, there weren't too many cell phone carriers who offered unlimited calling. Volunteers racked up large cell phone bills and considered it a donation to the campaign; they never asked to be paid by campaign funds. Some phone banking volunteers drove over 60-150 miles to make historical calls, specifically at the Long Beach/Lakewood call center.

After Barak Obama clinched the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton in June 2008 and after defeating Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to become the 44th President of the United States of America, that's when the Obama Advocates continued their quest. The group consisted of approximately 40 volunteers that carried on well after President Obama became President. Loretta (LJ) Williams and Theresa Lawrence co-chaired the rolls as President and VP. The two of them managed the volunteers. Natalie Chang provided administrative help with organizing leads by targeting programs that needed help and kept track of the Obama website that tracked their activities. Linda Fulcher served as an assistant to the group.

The Obama Advocates served So. California cities with community organizing, volunteering to help shut-in seniors, Low-Income Families, Veterans, women shelters, and youth groups. The Obama Advocate group helped seniors with yard work celebrate birthdays with seniors at local Veteran Affairs Hospitals who had no family. The Obama Advocate group received, bought, and donated toys to youth centers, pre-schools, and personal items to men and women homeless shelters. The group also created a group within the group that adopted service members that were actively serving our country oversees. The Obama Advocates provided emotional support with letters and care packages. For major holidays the Obama Advocates organized food drives of their own. They assisted other food drives organizations in packing and distributing food to families in need and conducted toy drives for underprivileged children.

In January 2010, when the devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, local cities and city council members called on the Obama Advocates for help. They played a significant role in organizing food and clothes drives for people affected in Haiti, and collected donations, raised money by having yard sales to donate money. The Advocates received rewards from their local cities.