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Press
Release
Portola Valley, California, March 18, 2002.
Dr. Katherine Forrest, Director
of Development for the Commonweal Institute, will travel to
Austin, Texas this weekend to lead a workshop at the kick-off
event of the Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour. She
will bring her marketing expertise to bear in teaching Texans
“How to Create and Run an Effective Media Campaign.”
“This will be a great opportunity
to have community activists learn how to design media campaigns
that will reach the right audiences with maximum impact,” says
Dr. Forrest.
“To get mass media coverage, particularly on television,
you need visually interesting events. At the same time,
to get the most out of your media coverage, you want
to make sure it reaches the right audience with a clear, consistent
message.”
The Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour, initially
conceived by well-known speaker, writer, and radio personality,
Jim Hightower, will be a series of grassroots democracy festivals
around the country. Rolling Thunder events will be family-oriented,
with fun events and major entertainers, as well as educational
workshops and hands-on opportunities for action.
The Commonweal Institute is one of the National Planning
Partners of the Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour. Leonard
Salle, president of the Institute, says, “We fully support
its purpose, which is to revitalize American democracy. Rolling
Thunder is bringing people together at the local level to take
power back from the big money interests and spin-masters that
have come to dominate the political process in recent years.
Texas, the home of the oil industry and the Enron scandal,
is a perfect location in which to launch this effort.”
After its initial event in Austin, the Rolling Thunder tour
will move on to Atlanta, Chicago, Tucson, Seattle, Minneapolis,
New Orleans, and other cities. In each city, local groups
and individuals will work as a broad-based coalition to plan
and host the event, with a special focus on issues of importance
to their locale. Oakland will be host to a major Rolling
Thunder event in the fall, with other smaller democracy festivals
elsewhere in California.
The Commonweal Institute is a new, multi-issue, moderate-progressive
research and education organization (a “think tank”) incorporated
in Washington, DC, with local offices in Portola Valley, California.
It specializes in developing broader public understanding
of social issues and support for policy changes.
For more about the Commonweal Institute, visit its website
at:
www.commonwealinstitute.org.
For details about the
Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour, visit www.rollingthundertour.org.
# # # # #
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: Dr. Katherine Forrest, 650-854-5695
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