Pictured above: (From left to right) Aariel Lovely, junior mechanical engineering major; Eliezer Lorenzo, senior psychology major; Katie Benton, veteran success specialist; Brent Larson, senior management major; Julia Nunez, senior economics major; Josh Mayer, senior health sciences major.
Story and photos by James Bennett III
Green paracord bracelets will soon hit the streets of Gulfport.
A group of USF St. Petersburg students gathered in the campus’ Military and Veteran Success Center on Feb. 18 to tie strands of “Gecko Green” paracord into bracelets.
The bracelets were made for Gulfport Votes 100%, a nonpartisan organization that aims to increase voter turnout until 100 percent of the city’s eligible voters vote in every election.
Gulfport residents who are registered to vote and pledge to vote in both presidential and municipal elections will be given two “commitment bracelets.” The first is for them to show that they plan on voting in every election; the second is intended to get another Gulfportian to take the pledge to vote.
Ingrid Bredenberg, the organizer for Gulfport Votes 100%, taught the students — who represented every branch of the U.S. military — how to make the bracelets by tying double slipknots.
Bredenberg said her organization started making commitment bracelets for the 2018 midterm elections with the help of Jon Rowles, a USF St. Petersburg student and Navy veteran who lives in Gulfport.
This year, Gulfportians can vote for councilmembers in Ward 1 and their nominee in the U.S. presidential election on March 17.
Bredenberg stressed the importance of voting in municipal elections because they have a greater impact on daily life.
“It’s affecting the schools, it’s affecting a lot of things, and people don’t recognize that that actually has more impact on them in some ways than the presidential (elections), but they haven’t built the muscles,” she said.
“So this is really about building voting muscles.”
