Tickets distributed for President Obama's Maumee event

7/2/2012
BLADE STAFF
A line of people wait to get tickets for Obama's upcoming visit to Maumee at the Obama campaign office in Toledo.
A line of people wait to get tickets for Obama's upcoming visit to Maumee at the Obama campaign office in Toledo.

Hundreds of Toledoans lined up outside the Organizing for America Toledo Office Monday evening to acquire tickets to attend President Obama’s Thursday visit to Maumee.

At 5 p.m., the Obama campaign began distributing free tickets on a first come, first serve basis Monday at Obama campaign offices in downtown Toledo, Bowling Green, and Sylvania.

Lori Proctor, campaign team leader for the Old Orchard neighborhood, said the office only learned of Obama’s visit Monday morning and their excitement has been growing ever since.

“The President has done so much to improve our northwest Ohio,” she said. “He invested in middle class families, rescued the auto industry...He is supporting and growing manufacturing. We need him to continue that.”

At the Toledo office, the line snaked around the building and the adjacent parking lot well before 5 p.m. Volunteers walked up and down the line, passing out cups of water and numbered slips of paper to ease the process.

Tickets were distributed one per person, and each person was required to print his or her name on the ticket immediately after receiving it.

At Thursday’s event, tickets will be required for every single person, including newborns and toddlers, and each person must present an ID that matches the name on his or her ticket.

The President will speak on the outdoor grounds at the Wolcott House Museum at 1031 River Rd. in Maumee. The doors will open at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday.