Hello fellow Drake enthusiasts! As many of you already know, the picket line protest that we had planned in behalf of Drake Hogestyn was pretty well a bust thanks to the devastating California fires. It is for this reason that we decided to plan another campaign to show the-powers-that-be that we, the fans, want Drake to return to the show that has been his home for 21 consecutive years. I know that we're all in total disbelief and are feeling furious and outraged since head writer, Hogan Sheffer, killed off John Black...speaking for myself, I never believed that DAYS would go through with this travesty and would actually fire Drake, but sadly, we can't undo something that has already been done. All we can do is move forward and show Drake's bosses that we will not rest until we are victorious and Drake is back on DAYS where he belongs.<br /><br />We'd also like to take this opportunity to clear up some rumors. First off, Drake did NOT leave DAYS on his own because he was unhappy on the show or because he wished to retire...simply put, Drake was fired! I know that many people don't want to accept this fact, but it was confirmed by Drake's Fan Club President, so it is no longer deniable. Drake is also quoted in Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly as saying that he learned of his character's demise from Executive Producer Ken Corday. "He called me at home, that's usually not a good thing. Whenever there are changes in head writing or producing, other changes are imminent. I wasn't shocked by the news." His leading lady, Deidre Hall, said that "Drake came into work one day and he confided that Ken had told him that it was bad news and they weren't going in his direction, so they were going to kill the character." Drake also talks about sleep deprivation since he found out that he is being forced to leave the show and how "It has been an incredibly difficult several weeks due to the disbelief, shock and then final acceptance and closure which is inevitable in any creative endeavor." So bottom line is that this man was fired, and I don't know about anybody else, but I'm not about to take Drake's sentence lying down! Whatcha say team, are you guys with us? If you guys are game, this is what we're going to do in an effort to make this a world-wide protest. If you support our campaign to get Drake back on DAYS, please sign into THIS thread with your name and where you live okay? Please feel free to also sign in any of your family or friends who are also Drake fans (or who love you and want what YOU want! ha ha!). We'll be opening up this type of thread on as many DAYS message boards as we can, and in December we'll be printing out the lists, putting them in a binder, book-style format and sending it to TPTB. We're going to see if we can get a small group to go down to NBC studios and present the book to either Ken Corday or Edward Scott's assistant, so that we know for a fact that it will be seen. Since I post at very few DAYS boards (I only post here at Soap City and at the DAYS NBC board), I would REALLY appreciate it if many Drake fans from here could take this text and start a thread about this campaign on one of the message boards that you all frequent. If you could keep an eye on that thread on "your" board and post in it about once a week at least to "bump" it and remind everyone about it, that would be terrific. Once you've seen that everybody who wants to be given the opportunity to sign it has signed it, please email me the link to that board DrakeDBEST@yahoo.ca so my partner and I could go in there and add the names to our list...that would be FABULOUS! Or if you have to be a member to go into that board, you could copy the list and PM it to me and that would work too.<br /><br />Thanks so much! Also, if there any Drake fans who live in Peoria, IL or NEAR there, could you please IM me ASAP? Thank you!