Lyssa Beyer

At 5:50 a.m., Sarah Bergstrom arrived from Bloomer. She got her spot at the very front of the line outside Zorn Arena. By 10:45 a.m., students and community members had filed in behind Bergstrom, creating a winding line, sometimes as many as six or seven wide, that nearly reached the top of the Garfield Avenue hill leading to the residence halls.

Bergstrom waited for more than five hours in single-digit temperatures wrapped in blankets before organizers let people into the arena around 11 a.m.

Bergstrom was one of the 3,400 who came from all over the state to see presidential candidate Barack Obama speak at his “Stand for Change” rally Saturday morning. Another 500 waited outside after Zorn reached capacity.

“It was definitely worth it. We got to shake his hand and be right up front. It was an amazing speech. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

A thunderous crowd received the Illinois Senator’s message of change and hope.

“When he came out it was just . I never thought kids could get as loud. It was mind-blowing and ear-blasting,” said freshman Brad Lang, who showed up at 8:45 a.m. “Euphoric feelings come over you and it sent shivers down my spine. It was nothing like I’ve ever been to on campus before.”

Fred Ludwig and his friends made the two-hour drive from La Crosse to Eau Claire for the event. Ludwig, a senior at UW-La Crosse, volunteered at the rally to get people to support Obama on Tuesday for the primary.

“In La Crosse we’ve seen a lot of the candidates coming around . I think by far he has . connected the most with the crowd than the other politicians.”

Supporters held signs that read “Change We Can Believe In” on one side and “Stand For Change” on the other. Students brought homemade signs with variations on the message such as “UW-Eau Claire supports Barack Obama.”

Most notable was a T-shirt many students were wearing that read “Eau Bama.com.” Senator Obama saw one of these T-shirts while speaking and looked at the person holding it. He smiled and said “I like that. I got get me one of those.”

Obama seldom mentioned his opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton. He didn’t mention her name for the first 30 minutes of his speech and refuted her belief that he can’t bring change because he hasn’t served in Washington, D.C. long enough.

“The question is not just who’s got the policies, because we all have policies,” Obama said. “Senator Clinton has very good policy proposals. The question is who can get those done? Who can bring people together? Who can overcome the special interests and the lobbyists and actually deliver on his promise? And so, when I make these speeches I want to make you feel like we can get this done.”

One of the more lighthearted moments came when a woman on stage appeared to be suffering from dehydration. Obama saw this and quickly grabbed his water bottle and offered it. When he threw the bottle to a woman standing nearby, the woman dropped it. Someone in the crowd yelled “She could play for the Bears!”

Obama, who lives in South Chicago, stopped and smiled. “We’ll see next year,” he said.

“It was a great speech. I loved it. The crowd loved it,” said freshman Nick Sullivan, who already caucused for Obama in Minnesota. “It was funny when he threw the water bottle to the girl.”

Senior Jasmine Lorenz said she will vote for one of the democrats, but is yet to decide who. She was impressed by Obama’s speech, but hoped to hear Clinton, who cancelled her stop in Eau Claire, according to her campaign.

“If I don’t get to see Hillary it might (sway me to vote for Obama),” she said.

Freshman Bryan Treichel and sophomore Matt Wicke said they haven’t decided who they are voting for, but when they found out after the speech that Clinton is no longer visiting Eau Claire, they said that would hurt her chances of getting their vote.

University Police Chief Dave Sprick said there we no incidents and he was very happy with how smoothly the event went. Eight university officers were on duty along with 12 city officers and four county officers. Sprick said couldn’t put a number on how many secret service agents were in Eau Claire, but just that there were “a lot.” Also, Marathon County brought in a bomb-sniffing dog to check Zorn before Obama arrived.

– News editor Ryan Dostalek contributed to this report.