Melissa DuBose said she and President Bush spoke at the airport about volunteer work and the Peace Corps.
Bush finishes 4-hour visit
Morning speech emphasizes technology, while visit raises $1 million
BY JIM RAGSDALE
Pioneer Press
President Bush made a four-hour policy and fundraising visit to the Twin Cities Monday morning, talking up community colleges to a group of educators and raising an estimated $1 million at the home of an Edina developer.
At 12:54 p.m., Air Force One departed Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The trip was a typical presidential two-fer, combining official business with politics, allowing the taxpayers to bear some of the costs of the visit. Bush was upbeat in his official remarks, which focused on the importance of community colleges and the need for technological innovation.
"I see the community college system as such a hopeful place," Bush told the American Association of Community Colleges, which is having its annual convention at the Minneapolis Convention Center. "It’s a place where people can gain skills necessary to become employable.... The community college system is accessible, affordable and flexible."
Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes are considered up for grabs in the November election, and this was Bush’s 8th visit to the state as president.
Air Force One touched in the Twin Cities before 9 a.m. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Vikings football coach Bud Grant were on hand to greet the president, who was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. Bush then went by motorcade to the convention center.
One of the first Minnesotans he spoke to at the airport was Melissa DuBose, 17, a senior at Woodbury High School who also is taking classes at Century College. She was invited to the airport and to the speech because of her years of mission volunteer work in Honduras.
"She’s there because I love to herald soldiers in the army of compassion," Bush said of DuBose as he began his speech shortly after 9:30 a.m. "Our real strength is because we are a compassionate nation where people have heard a universal call to love a neighbor like you’d like to be loved yourself. Melissa DuBose is such a person. She travels to Honduras to help people in orphanages.
"What a lovely spirit that is, isn’t it?" Bush had DuBose stand for an ovation at the speech.
DuBose said she and Bush spoke at the airport about volunteer work and the Peace Corps. "It was very cool," said DuBose, who started doing the mission work through her church, St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie.
Her goal is to become a Spanish teacher, and she plans to enroll at Luther College in Iowa next fall.
