Location: American Junkie
Date: Saturday, February 01, 2014; 3:00 pm-6:00 pm
I had volunteered for the ‘Avon Walk’ last year and had enjoyed
working with them, even making a friend in the process. This event was a kickoff for the 2014 walk and they needed some help in hosting that.
It is a similar event as the ‘Making Strides Kickoff Breakfast’ that I had volunteered at last year and I was
happy to do so here. It had been snowing
frozen cats and dogs throughout the morning and I had no option but to take a
cab to 'American Junkie', though the walk would have taken me no more than 20
minutes. I arrived to find other staff
members were already there, including Caitlin, who is the main coordinator. The guests were going to start arriving at 4
pm, meaning that there was an hours’ worth of set-up that needed to be
done.
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| What's a party without balloons! |
As can be expected, the entire
place was decked in pink, including several pink balloons. I grabbed hold of a few and placed them at different
locations all over the room. Then it was
general set-up which meant making sure the forms were distributed everywhere over
the room, along with other informational materials. A group of college kids were volunteering
together and they were assigned to the back of the room, which had a row of
tables with various stations such as ‘Team
Signup’, ‘Alumni Pins’ and ‘Merchandise’. As I was chatting with Caitlin, a young man
came and said that he wanted to volunteer with the “Walk crew”. Now, this is an
extremely popular job and it gets filled up a year in advance. Typically you follow the walkers in a truck
and collect water and ice from the various stations; meaning that you are on
the course all the time. Since someone
had dropped out and offered their spot to this gentleman, he was going to be
able to do it. He said that he was
excited and why not? I would too. I told Caitlin to let me know if any spots
were to open up, even if it meant a whole 3-day commitment.
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| The Alumni Pins |
Caitlin asked if I could help out
at the alumni table and so I went there.
The alumni pins had numbers from 2 to 12, signifying a range of 2nd
year of walking to the 12th.
If there was anyone who had been doing it for longer, they could combine
two pins. We were told that if anyone
came and requested a pin, we were to give it to them without asking any
questions. It wasn’t as if we were
checking any proof of their participation. The
merchandise table had samples of the things that people could buy online and
there wasn’t anything that was being sold here.
It was 4 pm and the guests started coming in and many seemed to be
familiar with the staff. People started collecting the alumni pins and most were for multiple numbers
of years.
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| The registration packets |
The alumni table was well staffed
with the college group and so I told Caitlin to place me elsewhere. She directed me to a station where people
could register for the 2-day walk. Three
women were already on that task and I was paired with one of them, who introduced
herself as Rachel. In order to be
eligible to participate in the walk, one had to raise $1,800. I asked Rachel what would happen if people
are unable to raise that money and she said that we shouldn't be thinking like
that. If people are unable to do that,
then they were not using the Avon resources available to them. It was a fair point, though it would be a
challenge for someone not skilled in fund-raising…someone like me. The registration fee was $50, but for folks
registering today, there was a special where they could either register with a “buddy” for $75, or put down a referral,
in which case both parties would get $50 as a start towards their fund-raising
goal. As people came over, we were to
hand them a form, check it once they filled it out, take a packet and note down
the packet number on the form and then give it to them. The packet contained envelops and other
resources to help them towards their fund-raising goal. Many folks came over to ask if as a team had
to raise the $1,800 individually or if they could do it as a team. As I had suspected, people were a bit daunted
by that number and I said that it had to be individually and sure enough, it
put some people off. One lady said that
she couldn't raise that kind of money since she supported many causes and
couldn't ask the same people again and again.
This is exactly my stance on fund-raising and I mentioned to Rachel that
I could identify with that. One lady
came to register and when she learned that we had the 2 for $75 deal on for
today, she went off to look for someone to partner with. I could see her socializing in the crowd and
after a while I asked Rachel if I should go and remind her. Rachel asked me to hang tight and said that
she would be back and she was right. The
lady came back with her “new best friend”
and they registered together. In fact,
they weren't the only people who did that and many were making new friends and
registering together. I told Rachel that
this felt like we were in the match-making business!
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| The stage |
Next, it was time for the
speeches and the Avon representatives got on the stage with a giant Avon
display projected behind them. They spoke about the walk and then asked for a show of hands to see how many in attendance were in their 2nd year, then 3rd, then 4th and so
on till we found one gentleman who was in his 12th year, and who
received the loudest cheers of the evening.
Then a survivor got up on the stage to share her story. As I have usually found with the survivors,
she had a great attitude and she captured the room with her positive demeanor
and humor. There wasn’t a single person
in the room who couldn't help but cheer for her after this. Then there was a raffle which included prizes
such as “Free bagels for a year” from
‘Panera Bread’. In another room a seminar was being conducted
in fund-raising and many people were attending that. It certainly looked like a very productive
party for sure. It was a good turnout,
though I mentioned to Rachel that it was a shame that snow might have prevented
many others from coming. The snow wasn’t
hindering some folks in a building across ours from climbing monkey ladders on
the roof while wearing dress clothes. We had a good laugh about that since they
looked like ‘Batman & Robin’ from
the old TV show!
Around 6 pm we started cleaning
up by collecting all trash and consolidating other things. I told Caitlin that I would definitely volunteer
for this year’s event if available.
I had loved the informal nature of the gathering and the
enthusiastic crowd who had come out this snowy afternoon. Plus, it was as if everyone knew each
other. I had seen a group of men whom
many would have labeled as “pub crawlers”,
but they had led the cheering for the survivors and participants. Good for you gentlemen. I hope to see you in June. But for now I had a dodgy walk back in the
snow. This time I did not care for how much
time it took or how difficult it would be.
Hey, I had just helped many people sign up for a 39 mile walk. I really shouldn't complain about a bit of snow.
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