I had some unexpected help this morning, starting with a surprise phone call and a 30 minute meeting with interesting facts presented that are extremely helpful to our event! :)
By the way, on another note, the Police agree with my proposals for event locations.
:)
The police called me this morning and asked me to come down to discuss locations.
The told me of 3 separate areas
One area is directly across from the ANSWER spot. That is directly across from the main gate
Area 2 is directly in front of the highway exit: when going south on 32 and taking the Coast Guard Academy exit, you take the right hand exit and almost do a u-turn on the exit, and and up on Willliams Street. Right in front of the exit, on the west side of the highway bridge, on the north side of Williams Street, there is a large grassy area where all cars will see you that are coming to the graduation.
The Third area will be at the corner where ALL family buses will turn to enterthe academy, Rte 32 and Deshon Ave. NOTE: Buses will NOT be entering at the main gate! They will be entering at Deshon ave, and that is the 3rd location we asked for.
While our original location would have appeared to be more visible, these 3 new locations will give us 2 direct views of families and the media. Locations 1 and 2 will make us visible to the main public and all families driving through the main gate to enter the academy.
Location 3 is not so widely known, and is the Academy approved entrance for family buses for graduation. If we get media at that location, it will be us greeting the families as they drive in, something the answer people wont be able to do there.
Our initial rally point, in my guess, should be the highway exit, so we can disperse people to the 3 areas. The area in front of the academy might not be allowed, there is no sidewalk, no crosswalk, no normal pedestrian entrance at all, but it is directly across from the main gate and ANSWER.
By the way, the Police told me that ANSWER had requested, and since they beat us, got the whole sidewalk in front of the academy, so, we are out of luck since we are responding to them, not initiating.
Good work Jim !!
Good work Jim !!