Florida Volunteers Get A New Co-Sponsor With A Peach Pie
by Beth Lefevre

I was excited to go to my congressman's office, Rep. Robert Wexler, on the Friday morning before Mother's Day.  I printed all the important information to take to his office and included a personal letter of why, as a constituent, I was asking for his support to cosponsor HR808......even though I was a little nervous, I was committed to going and doing a great job of discussing the importance of cosponsoring this important bill.

So, off I went, and my first stop was Publix to get a yummy pie or two. To my surprise, they were not yet ready, so I asked them to give me the first pie available because I had an appointment to keep. Out it came, a VERY FRESH peach pie!

I arrived a little late and there were three other volunteers waiting for me. Together we walked up to Congressman Wexler's office and, of course, we stopped to take pictures. We were all very excited to bring in the pie and share our passion for the bill.

We were greeted by a warm and wonderful receptionist who asked us to wait a bit, then welcomed us into the office of Wexler's District Director, Wendi Lipsich. She graciously accepted the fresh peach pie and we proceeded to have an amazing conversation for over a half hour.

She asked a lot of questions, we all contributed answers and then said she thought that congressman Wexler ALREADY supported the bill. Thanks to the latest information I had, and the list of who HAD supported it,  I knew he had not yet endorsed the bill. She immediately got on the phone and called to see if it was true. She really wanted him to be a cosponsor and promised to get that information for us as soon as she got word. We took a few more pictures and off we went. We left feeling great, knowing he was going to cosponsor HR808 very soon.

I followed up on Monday and Wendi still did not have word and again promised to keep asking until she had the answer. As we all now know, it paid off. Congressman Robert Wexler is the 70th cosponsor of HR808. So to all of you out there, keep inviting, asking, influencing and getting the word out....one at a time, if needed. What each of you/us are doing is making a difference!!!

Keep going, 
Beth Lefevre, Noreen LaBonte, Michele McGrath and Elena Brodskaya