When Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s staff agreed to meet Eau Claire constituents at the public library on February 27, CVI members were ready — questions in hand, hoping to be heard. Then the staff canceled once word got out about the turnout.

CVI held the session anyway. People wrote messages to their congressman, then marched from the library to his district office to deliver them by hand. They were locked out.

The story traveled fast. Within days, CVI group leader Cyndi Greening was invited to open for Sen. Bernie Sanders at his Fighting Oligarchy stop in Altoona — there to tell the story of constituents who showed up only to find an empty chair. Within weeks, the Washington Post featured the western Wisconsin revolt against vanishing town halls.

And one of the constituents who showed up that day — Teresa Kriese — would go on to become one of CVI’s most powerful healthcare voices more than a year later. One locked door, and the organizing that grew from it.