Celebrities Taye Diggs, Aisha Tyler and Idina Menzel stopped Saint Louis University to register young voters on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on Sunday, Oct. 5.

The visit was arranged by Obama’s Campaign for Change in St. Louis and was supported by SLU’s College Democrats. College Democrats President Lauren Khouri notified the student group of the celebrities’ visit hours beforehand on Saturday, Oct. 4.

About 40 supporters-most of them SLU students-attended the event on the amphitheater outside the Busch Student Center.

During the event, the celebrities talked candidly with students about the reasons they supported Obama’s campaign.

“America is in a bad place and we have an opportunity to make history,” Diggs said. “It’s almost as if it’s a gift.”

With the deadline for voter registration days away, all three speakers urged students to register.

“Do it for the little chocolatey babies we’re going to have, so that they can see part of themselves in their president,” Menzel said, referring to Diggs, who is her husband.

Tyler told The University News that she was at SLU “to encourage people to vote, to volunteer and to be involved in the American process, which is the best in the world.”