Location: Chicago Cultural Center
Date: Friday, March 07, 2014; 5:30-11:30 pm
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| Under the dome |
I had done the ‘Meals On Wheels, Celebrity Chef Gala’
back in October and it was one of the most upscale One Brick events that I had
been a part of. This was another fund
raiser for them – a good old fashioned Casino Night! I had opted in as the EC and Kinga was going
to be the EM. She sent out an email a
few days prior asking if people were comfortable dealing. Well, I was not and told her so, even
offering to find another EC. But she
said that as event leaders we would not be required to do any dealing and so I
was good. The venue was the fantastic ‘Chicago Cultural Center’, a place I
have visited several times. I arrived to
find that the grand hall had been transformed into a casino floor, all under
the beautiful ‘Tiffany Glass Dome’. It definitely was an elegant venue for the event.
I found Kinga assembled with some
of our volunteers and she handed out some fancy looking lanyards, saying that
they had to be returned at the end of the evening. Being winter, everyone was wearing heavy
coats and the first thing to do was take them over to coat check-in, which was
at the lower level. I was hoping that
the organizers wouldn't require any of our volunteers to be at watching the
coats and fortunately two members from the catering company were going to be
there for the duration of the evening. Well, as long the guests were getting food, the arrangement would work.
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| Our team was ready |
Back upstairs it was time for
some training and for that we had to fill out a form, which was essentially our
background check with Illinois State Department…or someone equally bureaucratic. They required our social security number and
that ruffled a few feathers, when someone did not want to give it in writing
on this form. He had a point though
since these background checks should have been done earlier, and plus this
volunteer had submitted their information multiple times in the past for other ‘casino’ events. So why couldn't the state agency just use
that? Well, the situation was getting a
bit heated, with the guy in charge stating emphatically that our volunteer will
not be allowed to deal and should return his lanyard. We had reached a standoff and it was only diffused
when another gentleman stepped in and said that our volunteer could stay as
long as he provided a phone number for them to reach him later.
The next step was the actual training
for the dealers and for that, a retired gentleman called Nick was going to help
the volunteers. He looked like he had
stepped out of a movie and immediately put everyone at ease by saying that if
there was any sign of trouble during the tournament, the dealers were to defer
to him and he would take care of the situation.
He then took a group to a table for training them on ‘Texas Holdem’ and I could see that
people were having fun learning from him.
On the other side of the room were ‘Blackjack’
tables, ‘Roulette Wheel’ and ‘Craps’ table. While most of our volunteers would be dealing
at poker, the rest of our team spread out at each of these stations. We also had someone selling raffle tickets
and a few others as “floaters” in
case anyone needed a break.
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| What does fate have in store for me? |
The guests started filtering in
and although the game floor wasn’t open yet, they were enjoying the bar and
appetizers that were being passed around.
While they waited, there were other stations to entertain them, such as
a hand massager, wine tasting, a woman doing henna and a ‘Tarot’ reader. It did
appear that people were more interested in the open bar than any of these
activities, and so I went over to have my “fortune”
read. The ‘Tarot’ guy seemed liked a decent chap and said that he would draw
4 cards and use them to discuss my future.
The 1st card represents things as they are, 2nd is
the obstacles, 3rd is the outcome and the 4th ties it all
together. My 1st card was a “luxury” one and he said that it means
that I currently have materialistic things in my life and those have been
achieved, or acquired through me not caring about what others think…through
doing things my way. Well, he was
definitely right about that! The “obstacle” card said that I would be
facing a decision soon, for which I would use my heart, when I should be
considering every possibility and outcomes.
That also sounded like something that I would do. The “outcome”
card was an upside down moon and he said that in 10 months I will have a
life-changing opportunity, whatever that means.
The final card looked like a bored woman and he said that it means that
when that opportunity presented itself, I should not be apathetic. Whether or not I take the opportunity would
eventually depend on me.
With my fortune read, I thanked
the guy and moved on to check on our volunteers. The raffle team was selling and now the
poker tournament was underway as well. It looked like the dealers were doing well and
Nick was at hand to answer all of their questions. I walked past the Roulette table and
remembered my time at another event last year when I had run that for over 4
hours, and enjoyed every minute of it. At
the Craps table, one of our volunteers was doing a fantastic job of encouraging
people to play. This is one of the
casino games that I never figured out, though it seems to have one of the busiest
table layout in terms of the playing options.
The crowd was enjoying themselves at this station and alcohol definitely
had something to do with it. As
the evening wound down, some of our volunteers came off their shift and Kinga
said that they could go enjoy the party.
The poker tournament
was now consolidated at a “champions”
table and there were 9 players left. As people
got eliminated, Kinga was handing them a certificate with their final rank as
well as prizes. One guy was playing for
a 3rd place prize, which were ‘White
Sox’ tickets. I kept telling him how
to manipulate his bids in order to ensure that he did that. He came close to finishing 5th which were ‘Cubs’ tickets, and he said
that there was no way he would accept them.
He finally finished 4th, which was a golf outing for 4 people. His friends in the crowd – who really wanted this one – cheered loudly as if he had won the tournament.
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| The great cause that this supports |
The evening was almost over and I
chatted with one of the girls who had been doing coat-check earlier, and learned that she was from Connecticut. That gave us an opportunity to talk about‘UCONN’
and the ‘Huskies’ basketball
team. Our shift was over and some of our
volunteers were headed to the after party at a bar, where it seems the password
to get in was “King.” As appealing as that sounded, I had stuff do
the next day and so I left. It had been
a busy evening and while it wasn’t one of the better One Brick projects, at
least I had my fortune read! Plus, it was for a great cause. Recently I
have done a lot of gala events for One Brick and I was feeling a bit jaded. While typically I would sign up for events
way in advance, for the first time in almost a year, there wasn’t any upcoming
project on my schedule. It was time to
take a break from One Brick, so that I could return back refreshed, and with the
enthusiasm that had made me a top volunteer with the organization last
year.
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