Saturday is the big day for Higgins, and there’s a lot of excitement building around our by-election campaign.  For the last few weeks I’ve been heading up the volunteer effort in Higgins as we close in on Election Day.

Volunteering is at the heart of any good campaign. There are plenty of other vital things that go on, of course – with candidates to be interviewed, leaflets to be printed, spreadsheets of myriad flavours and designs to be juggled – but unless there are people willing to take time out of their day to go out and to talk to the voters, it all comes to naught.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of demand for action on climate change – in fact, one of the hardest (and yet, somehow, best) parts of my job is keeping up with the sheer number of people emailing, calling and Facebooking offers to help. Often this means days on the phone at the office, but just as often I find myself exchanging numbers with someone at a party who says, “Wow, that’s really cool. How can I help?” It’s moments like those, when you’re reminded yet again of people’s passion and commitment, that make this such an awesome job.

A big part of the campaign involves talking to voters directly, but we also know a thing or two about getting attention. We knew that to kick off the Higgins campaign we needed something that said it all for the voters, linking their democratic power to the need for strong action on climate change. What we hit upon was the AYCC’s Human Tram. So on Sunday, volunteers dressed in signature AYCC Blue set off down the road with our tram props and the message, “Vote Climate, Higgins!”

The event was a huge success. Not a single person who’d agreed to come let us down, and quite a few who said they couldn’t make it rocked up anyway. We ended up with more than 30 people chugging down the road. Take a look:

The numbers are a huge relief, because we’ll need every person we can find on Saturday. In fact, if you live near Melbourne there’s still time to be a part of this pivotal week. Drop me an email (james.goldie@youthclimate coalition.org) with your phone number and I’ll help you get started.

The people of Higgins set out to vote on Saturday against one of the most extraordinary p extraordinary political backdrops in Australia’s history. It will be the last election anywhere in the developed world before Copenhagen. Nothing is certain now; anything can happen.

And when you want to create change, that’s a fantastic feeling.