As the battle over Proposition 8 heads into its final days, the “No on 8” campaign has asked people to give in any way possible.

One local activist, Jennifer Schumaker, is doing her part.

Two years ago, Schumaker, a lesbian mother of four living in Escondido, walked from San Diego to San Francisco to raise awareness for the GLBT community.

Her goal, she said, was to “help family and friends to start acknowledging the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in their lives.”

This month, Schumaker decided to take on a new project to show her opposition to Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that would eliminate the rights of same-sex couples to marry in California.

Schumaker created a large sign that reads: “Hi! I’m your neighbor! Protect my right to marriage: Please vote no on Prop 8!” She’s been standing at a busy Escondido intersection every afternoon for the last few weeks to raise support for same-sex marriage in the conservative North County.

“So the idea to make the sign was simply to say, ‘I’m your neighbor and I want the rights as anybody else and I want our kids to have those rights too,’” Schumaker said. “Our visibility in Escondido is important because it gives other little towns hope that, no, this isn’t some horrible hostile place where everything good is just squelched.”

Last week, the Public Policy Institute of California released results of a statewide survey showing 52 percent of California voters are against Proposition 8. Also last week, the No on 8 campaign reported a surge of campaign contributions, thanks in part to Apple Inc. which donated $100,000 to the campaign.

One afternoon while Schumaker held the sign on the corner, a young woman pulled up and stopped to give Schumaker a hug.

“She hugged me and thanked us for being there. She said her partner was deployed in the U.S. Navy and that until she saw us out there, she felt surrounded by hostility,” Schumaker said.

Schumaker started out standing on the street along, but one or her son’s friends recruited more people to stand with her.

“She showed up with a couple of friends, and the next day a couple of their friends brought a couple of friends, and then some adults went by and they would stop and say, ‘Good job,’ and I would hand them my card and they would e-mail me and be like, ‘Well what do you need?’ And I’d say, ‘Well just come on out,’” Schumaker said.

Melissa Foster and Jill Richards, both Escondido residents, joined Schumaker on the corner. Foster and Schumaker met through their children’s involvement in their school’s music department, while Richards had been driving and saw Schumaker with her sign and decided to pull over and talk to her.

“I have been an openly gay person since the early ’80s, so this is an issue that is very near and dear to my heart,” Richards said. “You know there has been some negativity; people flipping us off and saying nasty things. But there’s also been a huge amount of support and a lot of honking and waving.”

Now through Nov. 4, Schumaker will be standing at the corner of Escondido Boulevard and Valley Parkway with her “No on 8” signs and team of supporters. Her 13-year-old daughter, Olivia, has even joined the effort.

“All my friends say that my mom is really awesome and they love what she’s doing and they can’t wait to be out there with her and stuff,” Olivia said.