First lady Jill Biden visited a campaign launch for vice president Kamala Harris for teachers and union members Saturday at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware County.

The visit was part of a busy weekend of campaign events in Pennsylvania as the clock ticks down to Election Day.

Biden, community college professor which has roots in the Philadelphia area, was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd at the campaign stop hosted by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the Delaware County AFL-CIO. Biden greeted the enthusiastic volunteers surrounding him behind a black rope in the high school gymnasium. A union member herself, she was all smiles, dressed in a pink blazer over a floral dress, and had an immediate rapport with the crowd.

“In my 40 years of teaching…” Biden began to say.

“Forty-four!” » shouted a participant in the crowd, ahead of her.

“There’s always one!” » Biden joked, laughing with his supporters. “I feel like you’re just family to me.”

“Yes, we are,” someone replied.

Biden encouraged volunteers to think about how they felt the day after the 2016 election and use it as motivation so they don’t have regrets this year for not doing more.

“We can’t let this happen again,” she said of the former president. Donald TrumpIt’s the victory against Hillary Clinton.

After his remarks, Biden greeted attendees and took photos with them. Excited volunteers gathered near the first lady, trying to take selfies with her in the background.

Before leaving about 15 minutes later, she shouted, “Thank you, Pennsylvania!”

“There are a lot of votes to be had here.”

This wasn’t Jamal Johnson’s first time hitting the Penn Wood gym. The chairman of the Nether Providence Democratic Committee graduated from the school in 1996. Although returning to school at age 46 made him feel old, Johnson said, he has fond memories of look at Curry rap — a teacher, coach, activist, Hall of Fame basketball player and the late husband of state Rep. Gina Curry — playing basketball in that same gym.

“It seems like everyone really knows that there are a lot of votes to be had here, a lot of energy, a lot of people that we need to send to the polls, so it’s nice to see Delco get that recognition,” he said. Johnson said.

Anndra Wilson, 38, a temporary political organizer and K-8 music teacher at Mayfair Elementary School in Northeast Philadelphia, said Trump’s stated agenda to abolish the U.S. Department of Justice ‘Education would be detrimental to her students, and she fears that the federal government would no longer provide free meals to students in low-income schools. She said she hopes Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta wins the race for state auditor general because he wants to bring school audits back to Pennsylvania.

“It’s important to me to be a part of this team because education is the great equalizer, and if Trump eliminates the Department of Education, it suddenly takes away a lot of opportunities for my students,” Wilson said.

In an interview, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) compared Harris’ vice presidential nominee to the governor of Minnesota. Tim Walzformerly a teacher himself — with Trump’s positions against President Joe Bidenefforts to cancel student loans and in favor of the abolition of Ministry of Education.

“It is essential to our democracy that we have an informed electorate,” Scanlon said. “…It’s really important that we elevate our education rather than let it fall to the lowest common denominator or be privatized. »

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Scanlon said his mother was a community college teacher — as was Biden, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.

Some volunteers on Saturday came from as far away as New York, aware of the importance of Pennsylvania – and particularly the Philadelphia suburbs – to a national victory.

Evelyn DeJesus, 64, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Biden’s appearance at the canvass launch validated union members.

“She’s one of us,” DeJesus said. “…We honor her, we respect her and we love her very much.”

DeJesus, who is also president of the Labor Council for Latin American Progress, is also working to engage Latino voters. She said that when she recently knocked on doors in Allentown to reach older voters, she found that many Latinos who are not fluent in English were confused about the voting process. DeJesus, who lives in New York and works in Washington, D.C., said she will be in Latino-rich Reading in the coming days.

“I think it’s important for people to know that for Latino voters, voting is an honor and a privilege for us, and it’s like religion,” she said. “When I was little, my mother took all of us, my grandmother, my mother, my father, my tíasMy tíos – my uncles – and we all took it very seriously.

Aimee Serfaty, 60, who wore a shirt that read “Moms for Mommala,” woke up at 4:30 a.m. to drive to the event from Long Island, New York. Serfaty, a school trustee in Bayside, Queens, said she supports Harris because she wants her children to have access to education, health care and reproductive rights.

“I think it’s a really important time in our history, and I’m lucky enough to be able to get up early in the morning and get here, so here I am,” she said.