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AtL Somerset Patriots

Patriots Launch Freedom\'s Answer Campaign at Commerce Bank Ballpark

September 5, 2002 - Atlantic League (AtL)
Somerset Patriots News Release


Bridgewater, NJ - The 2001 Atlantic League Champion Somerset Patriots have announced that the Freedom's Answer voter turnout project will have its official New Jersey campaign kick-off event at Commerce Bank Ballpark on Thursday, September 12th for the Patriots final home game of the season.

Freedom's Answer (freedomsanswer.net) is a massive, non-partisan, non-profit national campaign led by high school students aimed at setting a non-presidential election record for turnout, letting all the world know that freedom is alive and well, and to honor our heroes in uniform that protect that freedom here, and across the globe.

The Freedom's Answer project is based on the nation's high schools signing up to form Youth Voter Corps, which will reach out to their respective communities and seek pledges from their families, friends, and neighbors to show up in record numbers at the polls on November 5, 2002.

These young people, who are too young to vote but wise enough to encourage everyone to vote, will help the nation make history. The project is larger than any other of its type ever attempted, and is sponsored by a wide variety of national media, educational, and youth-oriented groups, including Newspapers in Education, The Center for Civic Education, the American Association of School Administrators, National Association of Secondary School Principals, AOL/Time Warner, MTV, and Yahoo, among others.

The Somerset Patriots and the Freedom's Answer campaign for the state of New Jersey have worked together to create this kickoff event as the very first of its type in the nation, and has become the model for Freedom's Answer efforts in other states, and all levels of professional sports throughout the country, including Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, and colleges.

"The Somerset Patriots are honored to be the first sports team involved in the Freedom's Answer campaign. The importance of this campaign is very clear, that all people that have the right to vote should participate in making a difference in their communities. We are pleased to see that other sports team throughout the nation have taken the model created by the Somerset Patriots and Freedom's Answer and have applied them to their own upcoming events," said Patrick McVerry, General Manager of the Somerset Patriots Baseball Club.

Students from NJ high schools that have already signed up for the program will be at the September 12th game to register voters (with registration forms hand-delivered by the Somerset County Election Administrator, Janice Hoffner), sign-up volunteers for the Freedom's Answer campaign, and to get pledges from every voter possible. Freedom's Answer has invited over 300 guests to be part of the kick-off event at the ballpark, including several distinguished guests from throughout New Jersey. There will be a pre-game presentation on the field with honored guests who are involved in the campaign. In addition, the first 50 people to register to vote, or to sign up for the two primary Freedom's Answer programs (Adopt-a-Block, and Take Ten) will receive a free ticket to the game.

"After a year of painful reflection, many Americans have been asking themselves what they can do as citizens. The answer is basic and simple: respond to the call of active citizenship placed before us this fall by the nation's sons and daughters," said Cole Kleitsch, the New Jersey Deputy State Director of Freedom's Answer, adding, "the Constitution charges us to ‘secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity'; this year America's posterity is coming to our doors to get our posteriors to the polls."

For more information regarding Freedom's Answer, please visit the organization on-line at www.freedomsanswer.net or call (908) 901-9004. For tickets for this special event, please call (908) 252-0700, stop by the Patriots Ticket Office located at the ballpark, or purchase tickets on-line at www.somersetpatriots.com.

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