Fighting income inequality. Getting big money out of politics. Reforming Wall Street. Making college affordable. Health care for all.

Those are some of the many reasons Ann Arbor area Democrats said on Saturday they're supporting Bernie Sanders for president.

About 60 people were on hand for the opening of an Ann Arbor area office for the Sanders campaign at 4072 Packard Road.

Campaign staffers and volunteers plan to mobilize and work the phones over the next month to get out the vote for Sanders in the March 8 primary in Michigan.

Pittsfield Township resident Chris Russo handed out "Feel the Bern" and "Bern Baby Bern" bracelets to those who came through the doors on Saturday.

She's been making the beaded bracelets since last summer and estimates she's given out more than 1,000 of them by now.

"They serve as a wonderful introduction," she said, adding she and her husband have been using them to recruit support for Sanders.

"It's probably the most important thing I remember doing in my lifetime," she said of her work for the Sanders campaign. "At pushing 68, I've never gotten involved. I've worked as an election official for 25 years, but I've never gotten actively involved in a candidate until Bernie, and he just makes sense. He's talking about caring for our fellow man. And you can call it socialism, I call it common sense."

Sanders is scheduled to speak at a campaign rally at Eastern Michigan University's Convocation Center in Ypsilanti on Monday afternoon.

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Sanders is competing against Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Rocky De La Fuente in the March 8 Democratic primary here.

Four speakers announced their personal endorsements of Sanders during Saturday's office opening celebration. That included Mike Henry, Ann Arbor Democratic Party chairman; Ian Robinson, Huron Valley Central Labor Council president; Ann Arbor school board member Simone Lightfoot; and Monica Ross-Williams, an Ypsilanti Township parks commissioner.

They were offering individual endorsements and not endorsements on behalf of their organizations, though Henry noted the Ann Arbor Democratic Party conducted a poll in October and 77 percent of the party's members who were present supported Sanders, while 11 percent supported Clinton.

Henry encouraged Sanders supporters not to attack Clinton, saying she's worthy of their respect, but he also told them not to let attacks on Sanders for being a socialist go unchallenged. Henry noted Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are all socialist programs in the U.S. He said Sanders is just speaking truth about what the country needs and what kind of safety net citizens need.

"Also, when people say, 'Oh, well, I don't know if Bernie can win, I don't know if he has experience' -- I mean, he's got decades of experience in politics. Decades," Henry said. "And the fact is that his favorability ratings are higher than Secretary Clinton. All of the polls show, against every Republican out there, he does better than Secretary Clinton, so make sure people know that."

Robinson, a University of Michigan faculty member and labor activist, said he's strongly supporting Sanders for a number of reasons, including his focus on the growing inequality and poverty in the United States, and the shrinking of the middle class. He said Sanders is getting at the root of the problem.

"I think Bernie is really nailing the underlying causes," he said. "And if you're going to address the problem, you really need to know the underlying causes. And the more he's in this campaign, the longer the campaign goes on, the more Americans are going to hear. That's very valuable, whether he wins or loses, frankly."

Robinson said a lot of people seem to be convinced it's impossible to win a presidential race without a huge amount of money from big business or rich individual donors. He hopes Sanders can prove that theory wrong.

"Bernie is going to put that to the test, and that's hugely important," he said, expressing hopes that Sanders' campaign can help build a movement.

Ross-Williams said she got up to speak on Saturday because she wanted to dispel some myths.

"No firewall exists between Bernie Sanders and the African American community and the African American vote," she said, drawing applause.

"When Bernie talks about things like NAFTA -- it devastated my community, which is Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township," she said. "We do not have the jobs that are needed for our children that can give them the $15 to $20 an hour they need in order to be able to take care of themselves and their families coming up. Those jobs used to exist in our community. We need them back."

Clinton and Sanders will come to Flint for a debate March 6 as the city remains in the midst of an ongoing water crisis.

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com.