Fort Pierce - Tuesday August 16, 2022: The Fort Pierce Chapter of a national fraternity is once again leading its ‘Stroll to the Polls’ this Saturday. It’s a non-partisan effort to turn out the vote.
The Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity has a long history of community service. Since the 1930’s their national voter turnout effort has been called “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People.” And as they do every election, the Eta Kappa Lambda Chapter of the fraternity here in Fort Pierce is sponsoring a get out the vote effort Saturday called Stroll to the Polls.
Dr. Kevin Perry is the President of the Eta Kappa Lambda Chapter.
“In traditional African American fraternities and sororities, we do stepping, and we do strolling," said Perry. "So, we borrowed that name, strolling, meaning going from one place to another to the polls, to get our families, our friends, our Greek letter brothers and sisters, to go out and early vote with us.”
The Zora Neale Hurston Library is one of the early voting sites and Perry is encouraging registered Fort Pierce residents to turn out there this Saturday, August 20th at 3 pm.
“We’re hoping that everyone will join us, either in the parking lot of the Hurston Library, or in the parking lot of the Blackberry Building and we’ll just casually stroll over. This is one of our efforts to meet our mandates for our national program, but to also continue to make our community aware of the importance of voting.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re a republican or a democrat says Perry. It’s a none partisan effort to encourage everyone to vote.
“We’re not advocating for one candidate over the other. We’re just advocating for the process itself of voting and utilizing that right that you have been given. Every time you have an opportunity to cast your vote, do so.”