West Suburban PADS Annual Have-A-Heart Gala

Location: Union League Club of Chicago

Date: Saturday, February 15, 2014; 5:30-9:30 pm

I had volunteered for them via a Meetup last year, but this time they were on the One Brick calendar.  I signed up as an EC to Wilson’s EM.  I arrived at the location, which was different than the one we had been to last year, but one that I had volunteered before at an ‘Esperanza’ event. Wilson was already there along with a few other volunteers, including Kathy, who travels from Indiana for volunteering.  There were the usual faces but also some new ones, like Tom who had also come from Indiana and Jacqui, who is a Professor from Cambridge and is on sabbatical at Argonne National Laboratories.  Talk about people coming from faraway places!  With quorum achieved, we went upstairs and saw that Me. Jeff was waiting for us – another person driving from the suburbs.  Really, it must be the lure of working with me that is compelling people to travel great distances!

We were shown to a grand looking boardroom where we had assembled for the Esperanza project.  Terri, the organizer from PADS, came in and she immediately recognized me from last year.  I must have made an impression.  She gave us an overview of PADS and also told us about the new initiative that they are implementing, where their staff and volunteers are literally taking to the streets to ensure that homeless people are coming into the shelters and participating in their programs.  She then introduced us to one of her staff members, who had chased someone for months before convincing them to join the program.  This is what I had liked about them when I had volunteered last year. They really believe in making a difference and go great lengths to ensure success.

The grand ballroom that we had to guard

Terri told us our tasks for the evening, which was mostly being at the ‘Silent Auction’ tables.  We were to help people bid – the good old fashioned paper and pen way, not the electronic thing that I had seen at other places.  We were also required to answer questions about the products and announce when the sections were about to close.  There were 6 of them and 2 would be closing every 10 minutes from 7:10 to 7:30 pm.  Then she said that the floor above us was where the dinner service was being staged and she needed 2 volunteers to help guests find their tables when they came upstairs at 7:30 pm.  She said that we should also post people there right now so as to stop someone from going inside and re-directing them to the floor below.  It seemed straight forward enough and so after sending 2 people upstairs, the rest of us spread out all over the auction room. 

Hmm, looks like art

Being the EC, my job was to walk about and ensure that our volunteers were comfortable and performing their duties as assigned.  Mr. Jeff was at the ‘Fashion & Jewelry’ section and I told him to familiarize himself with the items on display, especially since I expected a lot of ladies to be coming that way.  Also in his section was a good looking ‘Fedora’ made of suede and one of the female volunteers said that women usually run in the opposite direction if they see a man in ‘Fedora’ approach them.  Well, I’m not sure they would do the same if the man happened to be Humphrey Bogart, but we would see how this item fared at the auction.  There was an ‘Arts’ section and some of the pieces were, well, interesting.  I remembered the brilliant piece from last year, made of plastic tubing and nothing this year matched that.  The ‘Kids’ section had a tricycle on display and it was no ordinary tricycle.  This one had left and right indicators, complete with the ticking sound! I mean how cool is that?  I certainly wish I had one of those when I was a kid many moons ago and was riding my tricycle.  It’s funny that of the few things I remember from my toddler days, I remember me riding my tricycle in a park and then at a tricycle race at a party with my parent's friends and their kids.  Another section was called ‘Gateway’ and this one had all the vacation packages, as well as a giant smoker for outdoor picnics.  The next section was ‘Sports’, with its usual signed paraphernalia.  The final section was called ‘Luxury’ and that’s where Jacqui was stationed.  I asked what her area of research was and was pleasantly surprised to learn it was ‘Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaics’, a familiar terminology from my past professional life.  We indeed had a lot to discuss, but I had to keep moving.

I went upstairs to check on the two people stationed outside the ballroom and they were standing by themselves with absolutely nothing to do.  The ballroom was one of the best that I have seen at these events, but even with that splendor, I felt that we were wasting our resources.  I went downstairs and said so much to Terri, who agreed, but deferred me to a colleague who had placed them there.  When I pleaded my case to her, she refused in a very passive aggressive way and insisted that I sent the 2 volunteers back upstairs to do nothing.  Well I guess this is the one night for some of these staff members to feel empowered, and I was not going to deny her that feeling. So I let it be. 

The party was in full flow and the guests were mingling in the auction room.  Our volunteers, especially Mr. Jeff, were doing an excellent job of encouraging people to bid. I walked around and saw Megan, with whom I had arranged the ‘Silent Auction’ area last year.  At 7:10 pm, the first couple of sections closed and we went about telling everyone so.  This process was repeated each time the other sections closed.  As I glanced at the bids, I was pleased to see that the ‘Fedora’ had received a lot of attention.  Looks like the female volunteer had a lot to learn about fashion!  Now that the auctions were closed, our job was to herd the people in to the dining room, which is a task easier said than done.  Finally, everyone had left and we could go back to the board room for our dinner.  While it wasn’t quite the spread like ‘Esperanza’, it wasn’t dry sandwiches like last year either. 

Why does it always have to be wine!

After dinner we all went back to the auction room - now empty - and wrote down the winning bid number's on a sheet, along with the price.  Some of the handwriting was a challenge to decipher – it was after all an open bar – but we managed to get everything sorted out in a timely manner.  Next, we were to package some of the products on display and as usual I seemed to end up with the wine bottles; the one thing that I could potentially break!  Fortunately we finished without any damage and then it was a lot of waiting since people were still partying.  Our shift was at an end and while Terri could have used us for the checkout, we said that we couldn’t ask our volunteers to wait beyond the advertised time; especially since some had to drive to another state. I left with Wilson in the snow and wondered if the previous year had been more productive in terms of volunteer’s time.  While this still remains a great cause, the unfortunate answer is “Yes”.