Local organizers for Obama for America (OFA) are set to host a grand opening of their Northwest Philadelphia field office this week.

Located at 7171 Ogontz Ave. in the heart of the Ogontz Plaza Shopping Center in West Oak Lane, the office is scheduled to have its unveiling on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Scheduled to be on hand for the ceremony were Stefanie Brown, OFA National African-American voter outreach director and Michael Blake, OFA deputy vote director.  

The new office will be headquarters for some of the city’s strongest voting wards including the 50th, 10th and 17th.

This is the state’s seventh OFA-PA headquarters since the launch of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign last April.

The West Oak Lane office is set to increase the grassroots community organization that is the hallmark of the president’s campaign, according to Devora Kaye of OFA.

“Since the launch of the re-election campaign OFA Pennsylvania staff and volunteers have held trainings, planning sessions, house parties and phone banks,” she said. “OFA-PA volunteers have made over 375,000 phone calls to voter and supporters and have held more than 4,800 one-on-one conversations with supporters about the president’s accomplishments, and how they can get involved going forward.”

Phone banking will begin at the West Oak Lane site Saturday, Feb. 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The East Mount Airy/West Oak Lane team will hold phone banks every Saturday as well as during the week. They will also be engaged in canvassing efforts and other voter outreach.

It was in 2008 when excitement spread as neighborhood offices opened throughout the Philadelphia area for the Obama campaign.

Among them was the red ribbon cutting ceremony outside the South Philadelphia office. Music mogul Kenny Gamble had the privilege of cutting that ribbon and spoke about the importance of field offices in local communities.

“I believe that having these field offices is what we need,” he said. “I feel Obama is the best thing for America. We will be impacting the change. That’s what having this office here is all about.”

At that time Cheryl Harper of the Democratic National Committee was spearheading the voter activities in the 50th, 10th and 17th wards of Northwest Philadelphia.

“In the Northwest wards there is a high voter turnout, but we still need these offices,” she said. “It’s important to have these neighborhood centers to get the vote out in all parts of the city, because that could determine who takes the election.”