Lincolnshire man to capture inauguration spirit on video
Though he had worked for the Obama campaign for 18 months, victory signs at the celebration in Grant Park convinced Vernon Hills resident Steve Sulkin that more needed to be done.
"If people think, `Yes, we did,' this fervor of involvement could disappear," he said Tuesday from near the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Unlike the average voter, Sulkin, CEO and founder of MBM Productions International in Lincolnshire, had the ways and means to do something memorable to keep the momentum going.
Spending "six figures" of his own money, Sulkin rounded up 40 artists, filmmakers and musicians and created the "Yes We Can (Change Our Destiny)" video project.
The five-minute piece blends the new President's inspirational addresses with crowd reaction and a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the title song composed by Sulkin.
The goal, he says, is to maintain the energy, spirit and enthusiasm of the campaign. By Monday afternoon, the video had registered more than 106,000 views on YouTube.
"I gave the video to the world," said Sulkin, who founded the multimedia communications company 31 years ago. The "Yes We Can" project has nothing to do with business, according to Sulkin.
"Here's an opportunity to engage tens of millions of people with a very simple missive: Stay involved," he said.
Sulkin defers to Obama's call to the public to "put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day."
He time with the campaign was spent canvassing voters in Milwaukee, blogging, making thousands of phone calls and generally communicating what the campaign was about.
He said he did the video so the passion doesn't fade, and plans to do one every few months.
"I'm not doing this for any fame, fortune or recognition," Sulkin said. "That's what we should all do."
He'll be a guest at several events Tuesday, including the We the People gala and the Eastern Inaugural Ball, where the video will be played.
With him in Washington is his 17-month-old daughter, Macie.
"I did this so she could have a better world," he said. "I felt compelled."