Seminar planned to help rebuild local tea party group

After a strong showing at tax day last year, tea partiers hope to rebuild the movement locally.

The Cape Girardeau County Tea Party will host a speaker during an event at the Osage Community Centre on July 6. Brad Sherman, a Southeast Missouri native and founder of the Iowa-based Purpose Ministries, will speak during the seminar, said Tom Young, part of the group organizing the event.

Young also helped organize the 2009 tax day event, which drew about 600 people. After the event, he said there were a few meetings, but support waned. He said he hopes to stir interest again with the seminar.

Nationwide, people who are affiliated with the tea party movement rally against government expansion. On the website for the Tea Party Patriots, a national organization, there are about 65 groups listed in Missouri.

Young said the local group is not affiliated with any political party and will not endorse politicians.

"We're just a bunch of concerned Americans," he said.

Group members said the event will stress the fundamentals of the Constitution and encourage people to get involved with the government.

"It's for all Americans regardless of party, and it's for people who care about the direction our country is going," said Mary Kasten, one of the organizers.

She said the tea party group is a grassroots effort to learn more about America. Kasten said there will be tea and information about the group at the two-hour event.

"It'll be God and country and Americanism," she said.

Another organizer, Barb Wehner, said there will be updates on actions in Congress and discussions about the Constitution.

"We just want to get people informed and let them make their own decisions," Wehner said.

The free event is 7 p.m. July 6 at the Osage Community Centre.

abusch@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

1625 N. Kingshighway Cape Girardeau, MO