ST. LOUIS — Under the hot sun Sunday afternoon, volunteers set up outside Lee's Pawn and Jewelry, holding signs and directing people to the tables with voter registration forms.
“I think all of us are optimistic,” Gerald Jones said. “That is why we are here --to try and make a difference.”
A volunteer with the Reconnect 2020 group, Jones is just yards from where retired St. Louis police captain David Dorn was killed during robberies at Lee’s Pawn and Jewelry.
They’re at this location for the second Sunday in a row, trying to reach young voters and form bonds between generations, and urging everyone — regardless of age — to go to the polls in November.
"If we can get one person, five, 10, 20, 30, 50… However many we get, I think it would be awesome for us,” Jones said.
And it didn't take long for people to pick up the paperwork.
Khahyil Moore was the first person to sign up.
“I got to. I got to. I am not doing my duty as an American citizen if I'm not,” Moore said of using his right to vote.
A veteran returning after six years in the military, Moore has just returned to St. Louis and stopped to register his new address while out for a drive with his grandmother.
“This is what it's all about,” Moore said. “We can say all you want about civil rights and have all of these nice speeches and everything, but as long as we're doing the groundwork for it, that's where we will get the real returns and results that we want in this world.”
After two weeks next to Lee's Pawn and Jewelry, Reconnect 2020 volunteers will take their message on the move. They plan to set up in the Wells-Goodfellow, Walnut Park, and Hyde Park neighborhoods during the next few weekends.
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