What gave me the confidence to move forward in spite of the odds were the people I met, including the people who came out to see us in Springfield. They didn’t stand in the cold for hours just for me. They did it because they believed in what this country could be, and that together, we could create change.
I would go on to see that same spirit in the faces of organizers, staff, and thousands of volunteers across the country who took it upon themselves to organize their own communities. They’re the reason our campaign succeeded, and I carried their stories—about a loved one who lost their health care, or a parent whose retirement account had been wiped out by the financial crisis, or a family struggling to pay their bills—with me to the White House.
Today, we face our own set of challenges. But my faith in what we can achieve when we work together is as strong as ever, in part because so many of the people who got involved for the first time in 2008 continue to find ways to serve.
I hope you’ll take a minute to read a few of their stories. What happened in 2008 and in the years since serves as proof that, in the face of long odds, people who love their country can change it for the better. That’s part of the reason we have focused our efforts at the Obama Foundation on inspiring, connecting, and training the next generation of leaders, and it’s a story we’ll be proud to tell at the Obama Presidential Center.
–Barack
