Avon Walk Office

Location: Avon Walk Office

Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013; 6:00 pm-8:00 pm

It is amazing, the things you see on a CTA train.  Over the last several months I have travel the length and breadth of this city on a CTA bus or a train.  During one of these travels, I noticed a poster for Avon Walk 2013.  The 39 mile walk is one of the premier events to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer and is held in 8 cities over the course of the year.  The Chicago walk was scheduled for June 1  and 2 and I went to their website to check ways in which I could participate as a volunteer.  I discovered that prior to that weekend and in preparation for the walk; they required some help in the office.  I signed up for one such event and that is where I was headed this evening. 

The sashes

When people talk about someone’s bad habits, they fail to mention ‘getting lost’ as one of them.  Faithful readers know that it is one of my ‘gifts’ and it was evident when I arrived at my destination train stop.  Despite the map on the phone at my disposal, I proceeded to walk several blocks in the exact opposite direction, before realizing my mistake and rushing back to make up for lost time.  I arrived at the offices a few minutes late and apologized to Caitlin, our leader for the evening.  She worked for Avon and asked if I had a preference for either calling people on the phone to promote the walk, or help with some unpacking.  Without hesitation I choose the latter and was led to a room where two other volunteers, Lisa and Robin, were working.  I was paired with Lisa in opening bags of pink sashes saying ‘Every Three Minutes’ and laying them on the table.  The saying referred to the frequency, 3 minutes, of someone being diagnosed with breast cancer.  I later learned from Caitlin that every 13 minutes there is a fatality.  During the walk weekend, every three minutes sashes would be handed out to the walkers and that meant there were hundreds of these to unpack.  A seemingly innocuous task, though it would take us some time to open everything. 

As is the case with these mechanical projects, the best thing one can do is socialize with your fellow participants.  The first thing I learned was that Caitlin was from Massachusetts, and that immediately turned into a conversation about my beloved ‘New England Patriots’. Caitlin asked my views on the Pats letting Wes Welker and Danny Woodhead, two huge fan favorites, walk in free agency.   After a few minutes of me venting about this travesty, we realized that there was no point in getting worked up about anything Bill Belichick does and so we moved on to talking about towns near Boston and where we each had lived when there.  I asked Caitlin if she had tried getting One Brick to come help, since this seemed exactly like the activity they would be interested in doing.  She said that for whatever reasons, they were unable to assist, and thus it was volunteers like us who helped out.  I asked Caitlin about the activities that would constitute the actual weekend of the walk and she told us how it would all start early on Saturday morning at Soldier Field, continue throughout the day, halt for the night at Horner Park, before concluding the next day, back at Soldier Field.  At each of these locations, there was a need of volunteers and we all offered to participate.  Caitlin said that the sign-up would be available starting April 1 and we should be on the lookout for it.  The Avon walk was ten years old and while one had to raise $1,800 to participate, there was no shortage of people who were going to join.

Caitlin left to attend a conference call and that gave Robin, Lisa and I a chance to converse.  Robin works in a Nursing facility as an activities director and I asked if she had heard of Chicago Cares.  When she said no, I explained how through Chicago Cares we participate in activities at nursing centers, and she said her residents would enjoy and appreciate a program like that.  I told her that I would get her in touch with Chicago Cares so as to help her set-up a program with them.  Robin also told us that during the Avon walk weekend her nursing home residents were going to participate as cheerleaders, especially since the route took the walkers past her facility.  That seemed like a wonderful gesture and I hope these people are able to benefit through Chicago Cares. 

The reward at the end

Next we talked about my volunteering activities and Robin and Lisa’s pets.  All through this we were still unpacking the sashes from their individual wrappings.  Looking at the bagful of plastic wrappings, I asked the logical question which both, Lisa and I had been thinking about – why do they wrap each of these individually and not in packs of 100? Caitlin in the meanwhile was done with her conference call and had joined us. The other volunteers who had been calling people on the phone were done as well.  Soon we had managed to open each of the bags and were ready to go.  Before leaving, I tasted the wonderful cookie cake which Caitlin had brought for the volunteers.  I told her that if such treats were going to be on offer, I wouldn't mind returning often.

I walked around the wooden floored office space, which was charming to say the least.  Caitlin had one final piece of information for us before we left.  The office where we had spent the evening once belonged to none other than Rod Blagojevich!  Caitlin pointed out the bridge for Metra trains outside the window and said that FBI used to camp out there for spying.  In fact, when Avon moved into the office, they had found that some of the phones had once been tapped.  I said they should probably check all the air vents because they may get lucky and locate a few thousand dollars hidden over there and that would make a nice donation for the cause.  I left with a sash in my bag, something that would eventually make it to my office wall.  While the evening’s task had been mechanical, I had enjoyed conversing with my fellow volunteers, and we had taken the first step in being part of a great event.