What an exciting and crazy day Thursday was! Lots of running...lots of waiting. We had no way to blog as we were all over Capitol Hill and a good wireless signal was essentially non-existent. Yay for Twitter!
We met our lobbyist, Megan and started the morning with a breakfast meeting in the office of Senator Amy Klobuchar. We were so fortunate to have almost thirty minutes to speak with her and Nick was able to do a short interview with her on camera.
Our next meeting was at the office of Congressman Keith Ellison. He was out of the office but we were able to meet with his legislative assistant, Allison Bowden. It was a great meeting and Nick really had an opportunity to share his concerns.
It was an extremely busy day of voting on the House floor so our schedule of meetings seemed to be ever-changing. Our meeting with Congresswoman Betty McCollum had to be canceled as she was unable to get away from the House floor at that time. She graciously invited us to meet with her back in Minnesota at a later date.
After a wonderful lunch hosted by N.A.C.H. at the Hart Building, and some more schedule juggling, we headed over to the Longworth Building to the office of Congressman Tim Walz. He too was busy voting at the House and could not return to his office but asked his assistant to bring us over so that we could meet with him in the Rayburn Room. What an unbelievable opportunity to see the inner workings of the Capitol! It was a record-setting day of voting at the House with consecutive voting starting at 10 AM through the afternoon.
As we met with Congressman Walz, he invited Nick and Naomi to the House floor to participate in the voting. Wow! Since only Members...and kids..are allowed on the House floor, off they went! Nick entered a vote for Congressman Walz and Naomi entered a vote for Congresswoman McCollum. They were so gracious and spent probably more time than they had with us. Back in the Rayburn Room, we also had the chance to meet with Congressman John Kline who is our district representative and his assistant. Again, we were so appreciative of his time and his receptiveness to our story. After our meetings finished, we were able to explore the Capitol a bit. Congresswoman McCollum even took the time to give us a mini-tour in the Capitol Rotunda, showing us the location of Abraham Lincoln's desk when he was a member of Congress. An awesome day and many amazing opportunities to share about the need for children's health care!
At the airports, on the flights and in many places around Washington D.C., including Capitol Hill, there were people who recognized Nick and remembered his story. He had the added bonus of being able to share with all of those people why he was in Washington and how the specialized care he's received has made an impact on his life and his future. Can't get any better than that!
Greta
Nick,
It was so great to get to meet you at our Family Advocacy Day! Thanks for making the trip to DC and for all you did while you were here. I have some great photos of you playing the drums!
Take care of yourself and I hope to see you again someday.
Sharon from N.A.C.H.
Posted by: Sharon Ladin | Jun 22, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Nick,
Scott Rosenbaum (Louise's dad). Really nice write up. Wanted to let you know that we ordered the DVD from the House session. If you are interested we can share it with you, or I can just edit the time you were on the floor and send it over.
Let me know scottr(at)innoventsolutions(dot)com or http://pipebaum.com and leave a comment.
Posted by: scott Rosenbaum | Jun 24, 2009 at 11:43 PM