In Danville, ‘an active summer of campaigning’

By Sarah Arkin

Published: June 29, 2008

As temperatures pushed 100 degrees last week and people sought air-conditioned refuge, a few young, politically-active Danville residents grabbed clipboards, pamphlets and water bottles and hit the pavement with a mission.

Participating in democratic congressional candidate Tom Perriello’s Common Good Summer Fellowship program, three Danville high school graduates are plodding their way through city, discussing issues important to the election, registering voters, and talking up Perriello.

Fellows are taking advantage of a heated election year, with high profile primary presidential contests starting laying the groundwork for an active summer of campaigning.

“I wanted to get a taste of the campaign experience,” said Jonathan Shields, 19, a rising sophomore majoring in political science at the University of Mary Washington.

“It’s one thing to study public policy and healthcare and all these issues in the classroom and it’s one thing to go around and talk to people about it … it was fortunate that I could work in my own backyard.”

It’s the local aspect of campaigning that fellow Justin Ferrell, a government major at Liberty University, finds particularly appealing.

“With the past city council elections … I’ve seen a change with local leaders,” he said. “From that point, look at the next level. You want to try to work in a field that’s going to change your community for the better.”

Of course, while being involved in an election year-campaign is appealing in itself, they’re all committed to the man they hope to someday call “our guy in Washington.”

“(I want) to make sure that we have good leadership,” said Ashley Clark, 18, who will be starting at North Carolina Central University this fall, who said she’s “new at the whole politics thing.”

“We set out to find the best and brightest in the district,” said deputy communications director John Cosgiff, “… future leaders, civically and politically, and gave them a crash course in campaigns; politics 101,” he said. “They’re the faces of our campaign,” he said. They’re not really told what to do, he explained. They’re the ones who decide where to canvass.

And campaigning isn’t easy work. Aside from trooping under the sun with reading and registration material in-tow, the fellows rarely know who’s going to be answering their knock.

“I love Republicans,” said Ferrell with a smile. One of the best parts of getting out and talking to people, he said, was being able have honest discussions and offer information and a perspective that they might not have been exposed to.

Growing up first on Jefferson Street and later moving to Dry Fork and attending Chatham High School, Ferrell hadn’t ever crossed paths with Shields who graduated from Galileo Magnet High School and lived in Windsor Heights. Both appreciate the differences in their upbringings, and are also both excited to uncover components of Danville neither was aware of.

Through Perriello’s “tithing initiative” where campaigners spend ten percent of their time volunteering with local charities, the fellows feel like they’ve seen hidden gems inside their community.

“It’s an eye-opener, definitely an eye-opener,” said Ferrell who wants to spend next summer volunteering with one of the organizations he’s dabbled in this summer.

Among other organizations, the fellows have worked alongside volunteers at the Salvation Army soup kitchen, Habitat for Humanity and Bibleway Churhch.”

“It’s just amazing,” said Shields of spending time with dedicated volunteers. “It’s a lesson in our community — what it takes to make Danville or Martinsville a better place.”

Perriello’s past experience in the non-profit world in the States and abroad, the importance the candidate places on civic and faith-based charities is something that appealed to Shields.

Perriello, too, has spent some time volunteering in Danville, and talking to his local fellows about their community. Both say a lot of their commitment to the candidate, with whom they’re on a first name basis came after they and other fellows sat down for three hours and just talked with him.

Shields says Perriello has an “amazing sense of our community, about Danville. He knows what we’re capable of and he knows what can be done in a House of Representative position to help us achieve our goals.”

“After he said he would love to see a Veterans Administration Hospital in Danville, I knew he was our guy,” said Ferrell. “He already has the values of the Southside, he has our interest at heart.”

Ferrell said one thing he’s noticed and finds very exciting are all the young people getting involved in campaigns and even just going out and voting. Shields agreed, saying he thinks that was part of Perriello’s idea behind getting “youth out there doing the work”.

“It refocuses the debate on the future,” he said.

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983