Generation Joshua

It's so nice to have all of my kids home again. They were gone for a week campaigning with Generation Joshua and just came home a few days ago. Generation Joshua is like a politcal club for homeschooled teens. It's actually a part of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). They have monthly club meetings, free civics curriculum, and there are even scholarships available through them. It's something that we've been a part of for the past several years, and the highlight of being a member are the SATs--Student Action Teams. The students spend a week before the elections working the phones and going door-to-door to campaign for pro-family candidates.

This year, Generation Joshua had over 1,875 kids sign up for their SATs. My mom took three of my younger siblings plus my four older children plus a few friends to Team Indy, where they were assigned to work for Richard Mourdock and Mike Pence plus some of the other candidates. I didn't go since I had to work. We also took the younger two kids up to my in-laws' house so we didn't have to worry about having kids home alone if my husband's shift overlapped with mine.

The kids had a blast. Halfway through the week, they asked some of the kids at Team Indy to go up to South Bend to work for Jackie Walorski instead, because she only had four kids show up when she was supposed to get 25. So most of my kids went with her, and my oldest daughter and her friend stayed in Indy because she was having too much fun there and didn't want to go to South Bend. When I picked them all up last Wednesday, they argued all the way home about who had the most fun. "We had the best food!" one group said. "Well, we had the best phones!" the other threw back.

They all stayed up until 2:00 a.m. watching election results come in. They beat me. I only stayed up until 11:30. Team Indy was disappointed because Richard Mourdock didn't win, but they were excited to see Mike Pence win and took all sorts of pictures shaking his hand. They admitted that they cried when Richard Mourdock gave his concession speech.

Jackie Walorski won her race, and so that team had nothing to cry about. They showed me videos, and there was a lot of stomping, clapping, and even dancing going on up there when she gave her victory speech.

I'm so proud of my kids. They might be too young to vote, but they are not too young to make a difference. The SATs give them an opportunity to realize that. It's not an easy thing, making phone calls and having people call you names and hang up on you, or walking in the cold each night to hand out flyers, but it instills in them an understanding of how important it is to get involved. Not everyone we worked for this year won their elections, but my kids gained so much from this experience.

Generation Joshua wasn't the only thing that our family did this year to work for candidates. We also got to be a part of two commercials. This one we filmed last year. Originally the kids were in it, but they didn't make the final cut. I think I blogged about it but I can't remember. Anyway, here was what the commercial ended up looking like. Bruce lost his race by 89 votes, though. He had to compete against another incumbent due to redistricting.

The other commercial we did was a last-minute deal for Tony Bennett. He didn't win, either, though.

I don't know if I can embed that one, because it's listed as private and you have to have the link to view it. Here is the link, though.