A long-rumored visit by the First Lady of the United States, a.k.a. FLOTUS, will take place this week as Jill Biden visits Healdsburg on a fundraising spin through several West Coast cities.
The destination is a private estate on Chiquita Road, known as Puma Springs Vineyard, to meet with a select group of about 100 prospective donors to her husband’s campaign for re-election to the presidency.
The visit was announced earlier this week. Dr. Biden is expected to arrive at Sonoma County Airport on Thursday, Jan. 18, at about 2:15pm.
From there, after a brief meeting with local press, expected primarily to be a photo opportunity, she and her entourage will head for Healdsburg.
“We met when her husband was vice president because we were big supporters of the Obama administration,” said Barbara Grasseschi, who with her husband Tony Crabb owns Puma Springs.
On Tuesday Grasseschi dealt with the pre-visit attention, both from the press and the Secret Service, which has contacted her at least three times to assure security. She expects the First Lady to arrive around 3pm.
Attending the private meeting, at which Biden is expected to say a few words but mainly interact with the potential donors, are people who Grasseschi and Crabb specifically invited. “The event is a fundraiser for her husband to be reelected,” she said. “Just that. We’re all pretty much focused. We like democracy. We kind of want to keep it.”
The private meeting will probably take about an hour, perhaps longer. Biden is expected to have a private meeting with some of the larger donors.
“Usually, after she’s done with her comments, she likes to hang around and shake people’s hands. She doesn’t do a Q&A,” Grasseschi said. “She’d rather do the one-on-one type of thing.”
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden, 72, has a particular interest in education. She has a doctorate in the field herself and was a teacher for over 30 years, according to her official White House biography. Among her other active interests are military and veterans’ family issues, and cancer research and prevention.
Stops on Biden’s current fundraising swing include Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Burbank and then back to Ohio following the Healdsburg visit.
Grasseschi and Crabb have been active in local causes during the two decades they have lived in Healdsburg, such as the Health Care Foundation Northern Sonoma and the Career Technical Education (CTE) Foundation. Grasseschi is on the steering committee of the Electing Women Bay Area Group, and started a Wine Country chapter in 2017.
I hope the entourages stay on Hwy 101 and avoid our town.