The first lady Jill Biden visited a canvas launch for the vice president Kamala Harris to teachers and union members Saturday at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware County.

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

Biden, a community college professor which has roots in the Philadelphia area, was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd at the campaign stop, which was hosted by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the Delaware County AFL-CIO. Biden waved to cheering volunteers who surrounded her behind a black rope in the high school gym. A union member herself, she was smiling, wearing a pink blazer over a floral dress and had an immediate rapport with the crowd.

“Since I’ve been teaching for 40 years…” Biden began.

“Forty-four!” shouted a participant in the crowd, picking her up.

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

“Yes we are,” someone replied.

Biden encouraged the volunteers to think about how they felt the morning after the 2016 election and use that as motivation so they don’t regret not doing more this year.

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

After her remarks, Biden walked around, greeting attendees and taking photos with them. A few eager volunteers flocked to the first lady, trying to take selfies with her in the background.

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

“There are a lot of votes here.”

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

“It seems like everybody really knows there’s a lot of votes here, a lot of energy, a lot of people that we need to get to the polls, so it’s great to see Delco get that recognition,” 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 dismantle the U.S. Department of Education would be detrimental to students his and fears the federal government. they would no longer provide free meals for students at low-income schools. She said she hopes Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta wins the state auditor general’s race because wants to bring back school audits in Pennsylvania.

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

In an interview, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) contrasted Harris’ running mate — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walzonce a teacher himself — with Trump’s positions against chairman Joe Bidenstudent loan forgiveness and abolition efforts Department of Education.

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

” READ MORE: We’ve answered some of the most frequently asked questions about the 2024 Pennsylvania election

Scanlon said her mother was a community college teacher — just like Biden, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.

Some volunteers on Saturday came from as far as New York, aware of how important Pennsylvania — and especially suburban Philadelphia — can be to a national victory.

Evelyn DeJesus, 64, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Biden coming to the canvasser was validating for union members.

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

DeJesus, who is also the president of the Labor Council for the Advancement of Latin America, also works to engage Latino voters. She said 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 DC, said he will be in Latin-rich Reading in the coming days.

“I think it’s important for people to know, for Latino voters, voting is an honor and a privilege for us and it’s like religion,” she said. “When I was growing up, my mother used to take all of us, grandmother, mother, father, that’s itmine uncle – 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 make it to the event in Long Island, NY. Serfaty, a school counselor 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 very important moment in our history and I’m lucky that I was able to get up early in the morning and get here, so here I am,” she said.