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Hi Fab BID Friends and Members,

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As this unprecedented and challenging year comes to an end, we can feel a sense of relief at Biden’s successful Presidential victory. We can also take pride in the collective contributions we made to his race for the White House and the two Senate seats flipped in Arizona and Colorado. 

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However, there is still much at stake, especially in the upcoming Senate Georgia runoff races scheduled for January 5th.    

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We are grateful to all of you who were able to participate in our Georgia postcard writing initiative and showed up over Thanksgiving weekend for our card distribution at the Tenafly Borough Hall.

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 We’re thrilled to report that our efforts to encourage voter turnout were a huge success.   We distributed 3600 cards to 83 members, who then shared them with friends and family all across the country. This has provided us with an exciting national reach, which is particularly impressive considering BID’s humble beginnings, where 45 Bergen County individuals began meeting in a Tenafly living room four years ago. We now have exponentially grown to nearly 750 individuals who are part of our larger, dedicated BID community.

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There was not a single card left unclaimed.In fact, we received so many requests, we couldn't fully satisfy the demand.So, for those who wanted to participate and couldn't, we are sorry we were unable to accommodate you.

However, you can always visit the postcardstoswingstates.com and order directly from them if there are cards still available. Vote Forward also provides a platform for writing letters, which you may want to investigate and participate in.

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For those of you who engaged with us on the Georgia Senate project, please hold off mailing them until December 27 to ensure maximum impact.

As we enter the holiday season and approach the new year, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on our additional accomplishments in 2020 — all very impressive considering we did it in the middle of a global pandemic:  

    

• In the spring, to start voter momentum for the presidential race, we conducted, in lieu of several in person events planned, a letter writing initiative in cooperation with Vote Forward, Swing Left, and Indivisible. Our actions resulted in over 2000 letters being mailed to numerous states to encourage individuals to register and make a plan to vote.

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• In September, while observing strict COVID-19 protocols, we held an in-person, outdoor, socially-distanced card writing event to encourage voters in select swing states to vote. More than 60 people from all across Bergen County turned out to prepare 1200 cards with personal messages addressed to voters in Kansas, North Carolina, Iowa and Arizona, as well as Pennsylvania. The event was a huge success, and when combined with an additional 1,400 postcards that were ordered online by those who chose to participate from home, BID proudly reached approximately 2,600 individuals who received our hand-written cards.

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• In October, we conducted two, online phone-banking training sessions with over 135 people, who personally engaged with voters in Florida and Pennsylvania during the last critical weeks leading up to the election. We think hundreds of calls were made which may have helped to influence the outcome in Pennsylvania.

 

Our efforts, along with thousands of organizations like ours around the country, resulted in the largest voter turnout in our nation’s history with approximately 2/3rds of the eligible voting population participating. We can all feel proud, knowing that together we made a difference.

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With full hearts and deep sense of gratitude, the BID steering committee, along with Mary Hubert and myself, want to thank all of you for making this another meaningful, impactful and successful year of community activism in Bergen County. 

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In the new year, we will reach out to engage with you as events evolve which require our attention and as we prepare for the 2022 election cycle. There will definitely be more work to do!

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We look forward to future successes together as we wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy and hopeful 2021! 

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Warm regards,

Lori Sackler, BID President and Founder

Mary Hubert, Vice President