You may have heard news: Medicaid Expansion will be on the ballot in November. Idaho voters will have a chance to extend health care to 62,000 working Idahoans who desperately need it.

But here’s something you probably haven’t heard about: A Pocatello woman made the Medicaid ballot measure possible. Her name is Chris Stevens.

I met Chris six months ago when she called me to discuss the Medicaid Expansion signature drive, an effort to collect the 56,000 signatures needed to put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot. Earlier that year, I had co-founded Reclaim Idaho, the organization that launched the signature drive.

I was thrilled about the opportunity to connect with someone in Bannock County. Our signature drive had begun in North Idaho and we knew almost no one in Pocatello, and yet we knew that we’d need to collect nearly 4,000 signatures from Bannock County in order to qualify our initiative for the ballot.

Chris told me that she was prepared to go all in to get Medicaid expanded. She’d spent her entire life serving children of all backgrounds, first as a dance instructor and later as a public school administrator. Now, just a few years into retirement, she felt called to work on behalf of ordinary people of all ages—to make sure that Idaho’s working people have a chance to live healthy and prosperous lives.

By the end of our phone call, we agreed that I would bring our campaign team to Pocatello a month later to provide training for Chris and anyone else who wanted to begin collecting signatures for Medicaid Expansion.

When we arrived in mid-January, in the dead of winter, we were amazed to learn that Chris had already launched a local campaign. We had assumed that Chris and others would need to be convinced and encouraged to get out of their comfort zone—to go out into their community and engage voters of all backgrounds and political persuasions. But Chris notified us that she and her team had already gathered 300 signatures by knocking on doors all across Pocatello.

That evening, Chris spoke movingly about the support she’d found for Medicaid Expansion among local residents—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike. Our team had arrived in Pocatello with the intention of training Chris and other locals. By the time we left, it had dawned on me that we had as much to learn from Chris and her team as they had to learn from us.

Five months later, Chris’s team turned in over 4,000 valid signatures—hundreds more than the local number needed to put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot. Chris worked tirelessly through the winter months. She recruited volunteers; she walked entire neighborhoods.

In these times of cynicism, distrust, and division, many still wonder whether individuals can make a difference. Is it still possible for a single committed person to take action and change things for the better?

There is no question in my mind. The answer is yes, and the proof is Chris Stevens.

Luke Mayville is the co-founder of Reclaim Idaho, the organization that launched the petition drive to expand Medicaid in Idaho.