On Saturday morning, April 18, a small group gathered at Panera Bread by Tanglewood Mall to later go door-knocking for the “Vote No” campaign.
Among them were two Virginia Western students, a young man who drove up from Collinsville, and Barbara Duerk, a longtime resident of South Roanoke.
Duerk had already been up early volunteering for the Blue Ridge Marathon that morning. Then, by around noon, she was ready to face the temperatures in the upper 80s to go door-knocking in her hilly South Roanoke neighborhood: an impressive physical feat for anyone, especially a woman who has lived in that community since the 1950s. When asked what motivated her to get involved in the “Vote No” movement, she said this:…