A Very Successful State Conference, “Now, More than Ever,” by Orlean Koehle

Thank you to our planning committee, to our former enthusiastic State President Andy Springer, to Samantha Waldroup of Turning Point USA, to our outstanding speakers, to our young adult eagles, to Gary Bosely, state board member, who took all of the many pictures, to our many vendors, our sponsors, and to all of our attendees for a very successful state conference that was held April 5 at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park, CA, attended by

about 170 people.

We co-hosted the event with Turning Point USA, which helped entice about 70 young people to attend the conference. The theme was “Now More than Ever.” The banner that hung on the podium also presented the theme and purpose of the conference. It read, “Eagle Forum of Californa and Turning Point USA – Empowering Gen Z Conservatives – Now More Than Ever.” At the bottom of the banner is a picture of

an Eagle mother hovering over, protecting and being a mentor for a baby eaglet, depicting how Eagle Forum would like to serve with our young Eagles.

Conference Details: The morning started with a welcome from young adult eagle Sam Springer, who also gave the opening prayer and flag salute. He was followed by a beautiful rendition of “God Bless America,” sung by soprano Terry Crandall. She also later sang “On Eagles Wings,” the favorite song of Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of Eagle Forum.

Steve Hilton, of Fox News was our first speaker spoke. He gave highlights on Terry Crandall his new book, CALIFAILURE. Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst-Run State. He gave details and examples of all the many ways that under Democrat leadership our once Golden State has become a failure and now faces extreme debt. After answering many questions from mainly the youth, Hilton did hint that he might be willing to run for governor to try to turn this state back to its once golden name.

Samatha Waldroup, the Bay Territory Field Representative for Turning Point USA, has been assisting Jennifer Gunderson, our Young Adult Eagle Leader, in her monthly meetings with the youth. Samantha introduced the key note speaker from TP USA, Morgonn McMichael. She is an attractive 2 5 year-old actress, writer, media influencer, podcast host, and regular contributor to Turning Point USA. Morgonn shared some of her experiences and gave pointers of what it takes to stand strong as a Christian youth in this difficult culture today. She also ans-wered many questions from the youth. They were very impressed with her and everyone wanted a picture with her.

Awards: After the morning break, Andy Springer honored people with “soaring eagle” trophies.” The first one went to Danya Ghirardelli, head of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, who lead the charge in helping to defeat Measure J - by 80%! Measure J would have declared all of the large dairies and poultry farms in Sonoma County as “Factory Farms,“ and shut them down. With tears in her eyes, Danya expressed her appreciation for the award and how humbled she was to receive it. Samantha Waldroup received a trophy for being so valiant and diligent in working with our youth for almost a year. She lives in Berkely, so had a 2-hour drive to come to Santa Roa. Michael O’Shea, the co-founder of the Sonoma Media Group, including KSRO radio, also was honored for his influence on conservative talk radio in Sonoma County. He later spoke to us on passing the baton and being a good mentor. Heshe told of how he had helped Glenn Beck started in radio when Beck was only 15. They were living in the state of Washington. Glenn would have to travel by bus to get to the studio because he was too young to drive. O’Shea played a clip from Glenn Back telling the story and thanking his original mentor, Michael O’Shea.

Orlean and Kurt Koehle were both surprised to receive eagle trophies. Orlean’s trophy read “Legacy Eagle.” Kurt’s trophy was honoring him for his many years “behind the scenes support” of Orlean in her leadership positions in Eagle Forum and he is supporting her again now as she is the CEO for Eagle Forum of California.

Pastor David Miller, newly retired after 45 years serving as a pastor, gave the blessing on the luncheon. Orlean Was the MC for the afternoon and had the honor of introducing Kris Ullman, our national Eagle Forum president, who came all the way from Virginia to speak to us. She is an attorney, who took a long leave of absence to raise her three children who are all GenZ now. She told how Phyllis would always begin her speeches by saying, “I would like to thank my husband Fred Schlafly for his support and granting me the permission to be here.” She would say that because she knew it always upset the feminists – to think that a woman would acknowledge that her husband has any control or influence over her!

Kris told of the principles that Eagle Forum stands for; she told how Phyllis Schafly led the battle to fight and defeat the Equal Right Amendment, which was a very liberal, feminist amendment, really an abortion amendment in disguise that would have made abortion possible for all women with tax paying dollars paying for it. She told of the many moral, Christian principles that Eagle Forum stands for and what we are fighting against. At the end of her speech she announced the dates of the national Eagle Council in September 8-10. They want us to come while Congress is in session and to lobby our Congressmen on important issues. She also made an announcement that Eagle Forum always chooses a husband to honor at their national conference, one who has been giving support over many years to their wives who are leaders in Eagle Forum. She said, “You are the first to know.

This year we have chosen Kurt Koehle, the husband to Orlean.” She invited Kurt to stand. What a double surprise this was for Kurt and Orlean. At this point, Orlean had tears in her eyes.

Debbie Bacigalupi was our second speaker in the afternoon. She is a rancher’s daughter from Siskiyou County. She had the courage to run for Congress back in 2012 when she was living in the Bay area and working for Google as an events planner. She ran on the platform of exposing UN Agenda 21/now 2030. She told how the globalists through their radical UN policies are bringing down our dams, destroying reservoirs and the best clean energy source – hydraulic energy, all with the excuse of saving fish. But the fish can’t live in all the toxic water that comes after a dam is removed. She told of the 4 dams that just came down on the Klamath River, close to where she lives. Thousands of dead fish were lining the banks of the river, and other wildlife got stuck in the thick mud and died. She also told how they are introducing “endangered” wolves that kill the new born calves, just for the fun of it. They don’t eat them, they just go on to the next one. She has so much to tell us that we decided to invite her back for our next yearly event – our Constitution Day celebration that will be held September 20th. Location to be announced.

Fundraiser: Thank you to Cheryl Casey who was in charge of the fundraising: the silent auction, raffle and live auction. She did a great job. Thank you to all the vendors and people who donated their items for the silent auction and the raffles. Andy Springer was the final speaker. He summarized the conference and expressed his gratitude to all those who had helped plan and prepare for it, thanked the speakers, and sponsors again and mentioned how great it was to partner with Turning Point USA and to have the young adult eagles with us, the future of our state and nation. He also gave the closing prayer.