Prior to the March 2, 2019 State Democratic Central Committee’s quarterly meeting, Democratic Party of Virginia Chairwoman Susan Swecker announced the 2018 winners of the DPVA Grassroots Awards.
The 11th Congressional District Democratic Committee selected Stair Calhoun. Stair has also just recently become a member of the 11th Congressional District after her election as Vice Chair of the DPVA Women’s Caucus.
Stair Calhoun co-founded Network NoVA in March 2017 to host the First Annual Women’s Summit. With her leadership and active participaiton, Network NoVA’s accomplishments include:
- Hosting three annual Women’s Summits
- Joining the Virginia Grassroots Coalition, working with the Grassroots Coordinating Committee of the Women’s National Democratic Club to adopt districts, host fundraisers, and lobby for progressive legislation
- Canvassing, phonebanking, and writing postcards for 17 districts, including HD01 for a Blue Migration Weekend.
- Developing the “Why Virginia Matters, 2017” concept and website http://whyvamatters2017.com/.
- Implementing VAPLAN.us, a legislation alert network to target specific districts, reaching out to all who lost to tap into their networks and support Democratic legislation in their districts.
- Hosting, co-hosting, or attending fundraisers for all Democratic candidates, and Senator Kaine. (Stair specifically co-hosted a fundraiser in Charlottesville for Senator Kaine)
- Canvassing, phone banking, and writing postcards for all Democratic candidates and Senator Kaine.
- Participated in the Democratic Rural Retreat
In addition to her leadership in Network NoVA, Stair
- Began a weekly post-carding group.
- Hosted small informational meetings about redistricting reform and other civic engagement topics.
- Hosted 19 Delegate candidates for videotaping in her home (including Wendy Gooditis, which was shown on Rachel Maddow and other places).
- Worked with the CGV and Marcus Simon to pass legislation for the Stop Gun violence license plate.
- Formed a non-profit, Network NoVA Action, joined Virginia Civic Engagement Table, and worked and pioneered with VCET New Activist center on how to harness grassroots groups capacity to create engagement and affect change on Medicaid Expansion.
- Hosted and attended meet and greets for congressional candidates across the state.
- Formed a new group, Sisters United, Learning and Working Together, which hosted a fundraiser and canvassed and wrote postcards for Vangie Williams, and will host an African American candidate forum with 90 attendees so far.
- Joined the national nonpartisan organization VoteTogether, which works to elevate voting, and hosted a party-at-the-polls in Prince William County.
