[Wendy Miller Olapade]: Thank you to Alex for being here and I just want to say that you know this mixture of humanity and The, the opportunity to serve, you know, comes right from our personal experience and I've been so inspired by Anna's work and her commitment to democracy and Aaron's sort of sense of call to service and volunteerism. And that's why we're here. And so I thank all of you and the spirit that makes community for that opportunity. So thank you. And thank you, Alex, for just giving us a chance to all be in the video.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yay!
[Wendy Miller Olapade]: Say yay!
[SPEAKER_00]: Yay!
[Wendy Miller Olapade]: Now I'm going to hand it over to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave him what he wanted. So I just want to speak for a couple of minutes about what has inspired me to here this evening to support these amazing candidates. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm probably the most recent citizen of Medford here. My husband, Bob, and I moved here 11 weeks ago. So what has me here instead of unpacking boxes? And I will tell you, it is these two amazing candidates. They actually, Aaron and I, go way back to here, I'll share you those stories if you're curious, come and find me later. But I was thrilled to, I'm gonna go with reintroduced because you're quite the man. And so when I first moved to town a couple weeks ago, bumped into Wendy, had an opportunity to meet Erin, I was just struck by this 23 year old man, who went through the school system in Medford. And I don't know about you, but when I was 23, I was very egocentric. I was thinking about what was next for me and what my life was. And here's a man who, at 23, after graduating college, looks outward and says, how can I pay back? What can I do for everything that I got from the Medford school system? please spend some time and get to know him. And he will, I'm sure, speak about his vision for educational justice and education for all in the town of Medford. You will find him to be intelligent, creative, and inspirational. Through Aaron and Wendy, I was privileged enough to meet Anna. Of course, I jumped on her website after first meeting her. And I will tell you, as a past engineer, what I was struck by on her website was, first of all, all of her experience, which you will most likely speak to, and her platform, her push for democracy. You'll hear about that from her. But she comes from an engineering background and is a data-driven research person. And in these days and times, I'm sure you've all heard anecdotal arguments from many a people. You've heard from your internet and sources, all kinds of facts and statistics trying to convince you to do different things. It is in the actual data and research that we can find the way to move forward in a creative and a way that makes sense. She's got a lot of experience about exploring not just other towns and other ways of being and moving democracy forward in the country, but she has a very broad view of being curious about what can be done to make a difference. So between those two things, I'm like, some boxes will get unpacked another time. So it is my hope that you engage with them this evening, learn all you can about them, and please, at the end of the evening, support them in any way you can with your talents, time, and financial resources as you see fit.