Near the intersection of Duluth Street and Douglas Drive in Golden Valley sits the Honeywell building that will be the center of Minnesota's news universe on Friday.
"The president is coming," exclaimed Carla Johnson, the director of operations at Second Harvest Heartland. "Very awesome for Honeywell, that's great."
Second Harvest Heartland is a hunger relief organization located right next door to the Golden Valley's Honeywell facility.
"My first thought was, can I pick up the phone and call the state highway patrol and find out what roads are going to be closed so that we can let our volunteers know?" Johnson asked rhetorically.
Second Harvest has full volunteer schedules all day on Friday, but the president's exact route is being kept under wraps.
"We don't know anything," Johnson said.
Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris knows that he'll be present at the event, and that it means a lot to the city.
"We're excited, this is a historical moment for Golden Valley," Mayor Harris said. "I don't know any other time in the city's history that we've had a President of the United States come to Golden Valley."
Meantime, in St. Paul, volunteers and staffers are hard at work on President Obama's re–election campaign.
"It's always exciting to have the president come into the state," said Jeff Blodgett, state director for Minnesota's Obama campaign.
Blodgett says the president's visit will help energize his base of supporters.
"His message [Friday] undoubtedly will get people again kind of thinking about how important it is to work for his re–election," Blodgett said. "So we're expecting the visit to increase our numbers."
Back at Second Harvest Heartland, they simply hope the president's visit will increase awareness about their organization.
"We were talking about bringing some of our really nicely wrapped trucks and putting them horizontally in the back, so if there's any aerial media, they would see that we were here," Johnson said with a laugh.
The president is expected to make his way to Honeywell around 11 a.m. The Cooper High School choir will sing the national anthem at the event.
Delane Cleveland
dcleveland@twelve.tv
May 31, 2012