WYOMING -- Former President Jimmy Carter visited Luzerne County Tuesday and spoke to a group of people at the Wyoming Monument.
Despite the rain, there was still a pretty big turnout for the speech and meet and greet.
Organizers estimate about 500 people showed up to hear former President Carter speak.
President Carter has visited Luzerne County before, most recently in 2011.
He and his wife Rosalyn have become good friends with Larry and Diane Cook who live in Luzerne County and they're the ones who got him to visit the area again.
Carter spoke about the work he's done since he left office and about the future of the United States. He told the crowd he is a history buff, and when his friends Larry and Diane Cook urged him to visit Wyoming, the site of a battle from the Revolutionary War, he was all in.
Carter spoke for about 20 minutes about his work with the Carter Center in Georgia, and what he and his staff there have done to treat diseases around the world. He says he hopes for a future America focused on peace, equality, and good principles.
"Not blue and red states, not Democrats versus Republicans, but all of us looking at our country as America, where we all have the same values, the same moral values. Where we accommodate changing times, but we still preserve those wonderful principles that have continued to make our country the greatest nation on earth."
Immediately after the speech President Carter signed autographs for some of the people.
"It was very inspirational, he is a marvelous speaker. He just touched the hearts of everybody who was there. Everybody just really, really enjoyed seeing President Carter. We all voted for him and we were just proud to see him," said Geraldine Gregori of Scranton.
"I loved it, I love his peaceful ways and his humanitarian efforts and I was thrilled to be here myself," said Joan Hartman of Connecticut.
"He seems like he has a lot of friends here with the Cook family and all that. So this is like his second of third home. Pretty neat," said Stan Gorgas of Nanticoke.
"The fact that he was a farmer for a while before he ever entered politics is amazing, he's done so much for the world now," said JoAnn Valenti of West Pittston.
There will be a fundraiser Tuesday night at the Stegmeier mansion in Wilkes-Barre. All the money raised from the stop in Luzerne County will go toward revitalizing President Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia.