STEPPING UP IN THE COMMUNITY

As a polling place for the city’s 4th and 6th Precincts in the 24th Ward, Union Avenue Christian Church opened its doors to our neighbors who voted on November 3. Maybe others of you were working, as Frank and I were, among our area’s 500 election protection volunteers with the nonpartisan group, St. Louis Voter Protection Coalition (@SLVPC on Facebook). As a “roving volunteer,” my task was to report on wait times, line lengths, availability of curbside voting for those needing it, and ensuring that yard signs were posted with a toll-free phone number to report any problems. 

Although Union Avenue was not one of my five assigned posts, my route was in our neighborhood so I dropped by the church three of four times during the morning hours. I was thrilled to see that our neighbors turned out in force to vote. When I first stopped, the line extended from the back door to north Enright, east on Enright to Union, and more than half way back to Delmar on Union. Some early morning voters waited in line two hours to vote. As usual, Ron managed the process superbly, troubleshooting with the City some snags with equipment for checking voters in and later with actual voting machines. 

Several organizations helped us extend hospitality to our neighbors:  Pure Catering stepped up, Krispy Kreme made a big donut delivery, and coffee was served courtesy of Dunkin Donuts and Blueprint Coffee Delmar. At two of my assigned polling stations, the group “Chefs for the Polls,” an initiative of World Central Kitchen, was serving breakfast and lunch. I asked the volunteers at nearby Old Des Peres School how they got the food, and they put me in touch with the group coordinator. When I called her to ask if we could get lunch delivered at Union Avenue, she said that the timing was perfect — another restaurant just offered to serve lunch, but they didn’t know where to send it. The only requirement:  the church would have to set up tables and provide volunteers to distribute the food — and within approximately 15 minutes. Rev. Michael and Ron arranged the tables and Charles enlisted several friends as volunteers to distribute the food. One of Charles’ friends, who had worked since 6 a.m. as an election protection volunteer at a different polling station, had come to UACC after completing his shift “just because I really like this church.” Soon he was overseeing lunch distribution at the tables Charles set up. I was proud to see our church in action — opening its doors, feeding the hungry, distributing water — thanks to our terrific staff and our neighborhood partners.  — Nola Proctor