Location: Butler Field
Date: Sunday, May 12, 2013; 6:45-11:00 am
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| My t-shirt |
Yes, this was another ‘Super Sunday’ with 3 projects, starting
with ‘Susan Komen Race For The Cure’
at crack of dawn. Furthermore, it was ‘Mother’s Day’ as well. I
had signed up as a volunteer long time ago and there were multiple events
going on, including a timed 5 and 10 K run, as well as something called a ‘Fun Walk’. There were several volunteering
opportunities, but I couldn't pass up on something called a ‘Fun Walk’ and hence I signed-up as a ‘Course Marshall’ for this 1-mile
walk. It was a bit cold when I checked
in at the Volunteer tent and was directed towards Sunny, who would be my coordinator. Sunny was a very perky and enthusiastic person
and since I was early than she had expected, she told me to walk around the
park, but with a plea to come back!
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| The festivities started early |
Amidst the White Cherry Blossom
Trees, Butler Fled was starting to buzz with activity. The food tent was serving Hawaiian Bread and
other baked goodies and while there were some game tents, the largest crowd was around a giant speaker and they were doing the ‘Cupid Shuffle’ at 7 in the morning. This is what I call brilliant
festivities. True to my promise to
Sunny, I came back to my waiting area but no volunteer was showing up for the
1-mile walk. I told Sunny to go inform
the main Volunteer sign-up tent and ask them to send us new signees. Since we were waiting, I had an opportunity
to converse with Sunny and learned that she was a nursing intern, who was
visiting from South Korea for 9 months.
She had spent 5 months in New York City and was in middle of a 4 month
stint in Chicago. I was impressed that
she had found time to volunteer, even during her short stay in the city. She asked about my schedule and when I told
her, she said that it was like a job, calling me ‘Professional Volunteer’. I
laughed and disagreed, thinking she should meet Wilson to be truly
impressed. I complimented her on her
dedication and even though she said that mine was more, I disagree.
We were still waiting for other
volunteer’s to show up, and I chatted with another man who said that he had
just come back from running in the ‘Hong
Kong Marathon’, something that he wanted to do before he retired. I said that he looked young and he replied
that he was 55. I said perhaps in body,
but not in mind, and he responded that in body he was perhaps 85! He mentioned that he does not listen to music
while running, since there was enough entertainment around him and he liked
observing and listening to other people.
Finally, Sunny came and directed me and 4 other ladies who were 1-mile
walk volunteers, to a van. There was a
group of high-school kids in there and the van was going to drop all of us at
different locations on the course. The
kids were volunteering as marshals for the run and were clearly excited. They were chatting about eating Escargot’s
the previous evening and referred to them as gummy bears with garlic mushroom
flavor. I have never eaten them and
after listening to this description have no intention of ever trying them. I told them that it was ideal since yesterday
was in fact ‘Eat What You Want Day’,
having learned about that in ‘As You Like It’. Then I told them that May 18th
was ‘Pizza Party Day’ and this led to
an interesting discussion since one of the girls had never eaten a pie. For the rest of the journey we discussed the
merits of sweet vs. savory pie and
another of the ladies who was volunteering for the 1-mile walk chimed in as
well.
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| Walkers to the left, Runners to the right |
Me and the lady were to be
deployed on lakeshore drive and our job was to direct the walkers along the
correct path. The tricky thing was
around the corner and along lakeshore drive where the sidewalk was going to be
shared by the walkers and the 10K runners.
It was a narrow sidewalk and there were some cones separating the path –
left for walkers and right for the runners.
The lady and I separated and I was positioned right at the turn where
the walkers and runners were to merge.
There was a slight flaw in the design and I couldn't see how we could
keep everyone honest, without having more volunteers downstream. My fears were realized when the mass of
walkers started to come. I tried my best
to ask them to stay to the left, but these were groups of families with
strollers and dogs and after a few meters, they started drifting towards the
runner’s lane. In the meanwhile the
runners were coming down full-steam and had to yell out for people to make
way. I really did try my best, but short
of yanking people to the left, there was nothing that I could.do. I mean, these people were out supporting a
good cause and they deserved to complete their walk in peace. The fault lay with the organizers and the
poor planning in route design.
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| What really matters |
Soon the inevitable happened and
one of the runners went and complained, leading to one of the organizers coming
down and reprimanding me for not doing my job.
Plus, he caught me at a moment when I was giving directions to someone, and said that I could spend less time chatting and more time making sure people follow instructions. I told this ignorant man that he was welcome to join me and try; and told him that we could do with some other volunteers down the road to manage traffic. Soon, the walkers stopped coming down the path and I could leave. This episode had left a bad taste in my mouth and I went down to the Volunteers tent and told Sunny about the ignorant man. She was apologetic, but just like the 'MS Walk’
as well as ‘ACS Walk and Roll’ from
before, the organizers could do well to respect the volunteers who are trying
to support the men and women who are out there for the cause. Susan G. Komen institute has done some great
things for Breast Cancer Research and according to their website, is a global
leader of the breast cancer movement, having invested more than $1 billion
since its inception in 1982. The
following week I gave a somewhat bad review in my feedback to the institute and
they deserve better than my complaint.
In any case, besides my uncomfortable encounter with the ignorant man,
the people doing the walk had enjoyed themselves and based on the turnout, we
had raised a lot of money. That’s the
main point isn't it?
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