Location: Galleria Marchetti
Date: Friday, April 26, 2013; 5:45-10:45 pm
The opportunity description for
this One Brick event advertised it as being part of ‘National Volunteer Week’. I
did not know that, neither had I any idea what it meant. It was a beautiful evening and I walked over
the location, even stopping at one point to admire the view. I arrived to alongside Gary, a Super
volunteer with One Brick, who always rides his cycle to projects, even when
he’s wearing a suit. In fact he was not
the only one in suit, so was Wilson, looking as sharp as I have seen him. He introduced me some of the other
volunteers, including Kinga, Laura and Emily.
Also present was a gentleman, whom I shall not name, but
more on him later. Kinga, who was the
Event Manager, started assigning people tasks and I was appointed to be the greeter, or in layman’s terms, the doorman. I
however, did have the best in business as my compatriot, since Wilson joined
me.
.JPG) |
| Silent Auction items |
Unlike my previous experience
with door, where I had stood inside and away from the freezing cold, it really
was pleasant this evening and so Wilson and I took up our posts outside, not before
I had taken a look at the place we were at.
Galleria Marchetti is a fantastic choice to hold private parties and
events. The interior look like it has
been inspired by Italian designs and the entire place comes across as a classy
venue. Wilson and I took up our
positions on either side of the two doors and practiced our welcome
greetings. I was going to stick with
either, “Good Evening” or “Welcome” or even “Thank You for coming”. But
Wilson suggested we throw in, “Welcome to
Friends Of The Park” to ensure that the visitors were indeed at the right
location. This was to prevent people
like a young woman, who came looking for a rehearsal dinner and thought that
this was the venue for it.
We spend a long time outside and
had opportunity to chat about many things, our favorite projects, Red Cross
etc. I told Wilson one of my favorite
projects was ‘Paint The Town Red’ at ‘Pat Crowley House’. Wilson asked me if I had noticed that the
residents are always making things and cards to give away to someone. When I said yes, he said that the reason was
because they rely on others for help and get so much, that this is their way of
showing appreciation. Hearing this has
made me more determined to attend this project as much as I can. Wilson said that he needs a bigger car to
accommodate all of his project's related stuff and having seen it, he isn't kidding. I said he should look for an SUV or a minivan
and was laughing aloud when Wilson’s response was that he should get for himself a
trailer, which he would detach when not required. The problem is that Wilson always believes in
being prepared and so would never detach that trailer, even if he were going to the Opera! Speaking of which, people
attending tonight’s event were certainly dressed for an elegant night out and
at times, I even complimented some of the women on their shoes and accessories
– something they appreciated a lot. At
one point I saw a familiar figure, one of my old colleagues who has gone on to
bigger and better things. I pointed it
out, saying that while he was attending the event in style, I was opening the doors for him. The evening was
progressing well and the guests kept coming.
From our spot, which was next to the kitchen, we could smell what was
cooking and it seemed delicious. Not one
to never have an opinion, Wilson identified it as Rosemary and Thyme Chicken,
something confirmed by the chef. Well,
we can add this to Wilson’s skill set now.
We had been outside for over an hour and felt it was time to go in when
we saw a guy who had been headed to a bar at the beginning of our shift, come
back and still find us there. But before
we headed in, I asked Wilson how long he had been volunteering and without a
moment’s hesitation, Wilson put his arm out to indicate the height of a little
boy.
 |
| The dining area |
The next task that Kinga gave us
was to be spotters for live auction as well as for collecting donations. Just as the food for the volunteers was
brought in, we were asked to go to the main dining area in order to do this
task. The dining for guests was in a
giant tent which had been decorated to resemble a ballroom. As the auction began, our job was to keep an
eye on the bidders to check if anyone raised their bid card. If so, we were to point, so that
the Auctioneer could focus on them as he continued. He was going really fast and one of the
volunteers Emily said that in her opinion he wasn't that good. Wilson said that he was after all working for
free and we should appreciate that. I
couldn't tell a good Auctioneer from a bad one to save my life and thus was
more interested in the prizes. There was
a White Sox package which included luxury seats for 20 people and another which
was a vacation for two to an exclusive mansion in California, airfare and
everything else. I said that if I could
afford it, I would love to bid on that and Wilson said that he would choose the
White Sox one since he can make 20 people happy. I disagreed saying I would much rather do
that with a couple rather than 20 sports fans.
One of the reasons I enjoy doing projects with Wilson is because we
often get into such discussions and more often than not respectfully disagree
with each other. For example, one of the
things I firmly believe in is chipping away at something in order to effect a long-term
change, something that may take years, but one constantly works at it. Wilson on the other hand wants to do
something for the present, something that helps right now. I think both points of view are valid and it’s
more enjoyable to discuss this with someone like Wilson, rather than a person
who goes on the defensive during a debate.
The auction was soon over and
neither Wilson, nor I had bid on anything, not that we would have been allowed
to! Our next task was to note down the
names of people who wanted to make donations.
The Master of Ceremonies was asking people for help and whoever raised
their bid number, we were to go to them and take down their details. I was fortunate enough to do that with 3
people, though there was in interesting incident which followed that. I was on my way to submit the paperwork, when
one of the ladies at a table asked me to take away a bottle of wine. After I did so, she called me back and asked
me to get her another. Then she asked me
to get ice for her husband. Wilson was
watching this with great amusement and said that since she had just donated
$1,000, I better do whatever she wanted.
Actually, many people had done a great job in supporting the cause. According to the One Brick project
description, “The Parks Ball honors those
in Chicago who have supported Friends of the Park's mission. Support of the
Parks Ball will enable FOTP to take steps to implement The Last Four Miles Plan
by acquiring 100 acres of land for a new lakefront park.” According to their website, FOTP is Chicago’s
only citywide parks advocacy group, with a mission to preserve, protect and
improve Chicago’s parks and forest preserves in Cook County.
.JPG) |
| Even the flowers were auctioned off! |
The dinner festivities were over
and now the dancing was about to commence.
I came out to get some pizza before they took it away and chatted with my fellow volunteer, Laura. She
is working towards her doctorate, writing a thesis on ‘Childhood Obesity’. I am
often fascinated by people’s research and discussed with her causes for
obesity; asking her about various reasons, ranging from genetic to psychological
to behavioral. We talked about my thesis
and graduate school, as well the various places we had lived in. I told her that I would be very interested in
reading about her work and wished her well.
Soon she was called for her next task, which was closing out the sale
for people who had won something in auction, while I was going to be helping
with packaging the winning items. Before
I could do that, one gentleman came and asked if we could call him a cab. I did so using my phone and it took some
explaining to the operator that while I did not know where the gentleman was
headed, this was not a prank call. In
any case, his cab arrived and I escorted him and his wife to the cab and for a
moment he considered tipping me, but I wished him goodnight and came back.
At the beginning of this evening,
when I met all of my fellow volunteers, there was a gentleman, whom I shall not name over here. While
there was enough work for all of us this evening, he had not done a single
thing to help us out, preferring instead to spend his time talking to all of
the women. Even towards the end, we were
packing stuff and could have used an additional pair of hands, but he refused
to budge. Instead it was Wilson and I
doing everything, including carrying things to people’s car. Later, as Wilson dropped me home, I told him
how disappointed I was in this person. Wilson said that this is what he always does,
but there is nothing we can do to change that and it’s up to the Event Manager
to ensure that everyone is pulling their weight. He said that at the end of the day, all of us
are volunteers and by definition it means we are not obliged to help. I strongly disagree with this line of
thinking, for I feel that representing the clients is a privilege and even though we are
volunteers, we owe them our full commitment while on a project. Of all people, Wilson is a symbol of how
volunteers should behave, though he is too modest – or rather oblivious – to admit. He was off to work at an all-night shelter,
before dong two projects tomorrow, including one at 9 am. When does the man ever sleep? Why am I still asking these questions?
No comments:
Post a Comment