Auburn (WSYR-TV) – She’s scheduled to appear at Auburn’s first Founders Day celebration on Saturday, but Sarah Palin has already arrived in the area.
The Alaska governor and one-time Vice-Presidential hopeful was seen leaving an Auburn restaurant Friday morning.
She was expected to visit the Seneca Falls Women’s Museum Friday afternoon.
Auburn will hold its first ever Founders Day on Saturday, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood.
On Friday, we spoke with some excited locals as they prepared for Palin's visit.
“I think it’s great,” says resident Al Pola. “I don't think it has anything to do with whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. It's great to have someone who’s on the national stage come down here and who sees the connection with our community and brings us on the national stage.”
Auburn native William Seward played a pivotal role in the country's purchase of Alaska back in 1867, when he was Secretary of State. That special bond between Auburn and Alaska is what attracted Palin to the city.
“Sometimes to get someone like that, it's a shot in the dark and that time it panned out,” says Daniel Schuster of the Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District.
Governor Palin will speak on the steps of City Hall; the parking lot behind it will be closed to vehicles, but open to the public, so that as many people as possible can come and hear Palin speak.
“There's going to be a lot of people. For Auburn, were a small town and were not used to it and a lot of people are coming just for the spectacle of the whole thing,” Schuster says.
And local businesses are getting in on the Palin excitement too. At Adam's Brooklyn Style Deli, they're making a special Alaskan seafood pizza in her honor.
“I'm very excited – I’d love to meet her, that's why we’re doing the Alaskan pizza, maybe she'd want a slice, you never know,” says the deli’s owner, Adam Santana.
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