Location: Soldier Field
Date: Saturday, April 27, 2013; 8:00 am-12:15 pm
It was getting warmer outside and
that meant the season for walks and runs was about to get underway. I had signed up for many such events,
including this one, but had not heard back from the organizers. I asked Adam when I was at ACS for the
sub-committee meeting the previous week, and he had written to Tessa, who was
coordinating the volunteer effort for this event. She wrote to me saying that I would be
helping with the registration, and so I showed up at Soldier field a little
before 8 am. We were going to be situated outside the stadium and I
checked-in with Tessa, who directed me towards Mary Kate, who was directing the
volunteers at Registration. Since there
was a little bit of time before we began, I went to get coffee at a Dunkin
Donuts truck. The gentleman said that it
would be ready in a short while, but as minutes went by and there was no sign
of coffee, I left because I did not want to miss my training. Looks like the guys in the truck were
grinding the coffee using mortar and pestle!
.JPG) |
| The registration tent |
Adam, whom I had met at the ACS offices,
was going to be training us and it was quite straightforward. People would be coming to us having either
pre-registered or wanting to register.
If they had registered, we were to check their name on the list and if
they had collected or raised money over $100, we were to give them a coupon for
a t-shirt. In case anyone wanted to
register, we were to get them to fill out a form, collect $15 and then put
both, the money and the form into an envelope.
Once there were 10 forms inside the envelope, it went to the accountants
at the back of our tent. Since money was involved, we had also arranged for
security to be at our station.
.JPG) |
| Yep, 3 ways to roll |
The ‘Walk & Roll’ event was over 40 years old and raises funds to
fight all forms of cancer. Unlike the
ACS sub-committee for Breast Cancer, that I am a part of, this event emphasized
the fact that it was fighting all forms of cancer. People could participate in three ways,
either by walking or biking or roller-skating…hence the name. ACS calls itself 'The Official Sponsor Of
Birthdays’, and the pamphlet said that because of the advances in cancer
research, over 350 more birthdays are celebrated every day - that’s over a 127
thousand lives saved each year. With
these sobering thoughts, we were ready to begin.
People started arriving and I
went through the entire process with them.
Many who were pre-registered had raised in excess of $100 and I was
handing them a coupon. Some had raised a
lot of money as a team, and were expecting multiple shirts. But that was not the rule. I was told to hand out only one shirt per
person registered, no matter how much money they had raised in excess of $100. For example, if a team of 10 had raised
$1000, but that was owing to $950 through one person, they still got just one
shirt. I did not necessarily agree with
this line of thinking, but it was the rule.
I feel that wearing a t-shirt promotes the cause, because it opens up
discussion. So ACS, if anything, should
have been more than happy to give away t-shirts to all participants, but costs
are king and I am sure they had a budget.
I was partnered with a gentleman,
who introduced himself as Ansar. He was
handling the money, while I checked on registrations. We worked well together and were quite busy
during the peak period, but also found some time to chat. I learned that
Ansar worked for PepsiCo and was representing the company as a volunteer at
today’s event. I asked him about the
cola wars, more particularly how the States seem to have chosen sides, since
one product has a monopoly in a particular State versus the other. He said it wasn't just the states, but
companies as well, for example McDonald's had a handshake with Coca-Cola to
market their products. Ansar lived in
the suburbs and takes a train into downtown every day. We talked about the two main Metra stations –
Union and Ogilvie. Since they were so
close to each other, I could see how that may get confusing for newcomers. Just the other day I was asked by someone on
the street direction to the train station and when I asked which one, they were
confused. In any case, from what I have
seen of the traffic situation in Chicago, it is much better to take a train
into and out of downtown than drive.
.JPG) |
| The course map |
People were coming in at a
regular pace and some had managed to raise over $800. For anyone above $100, I was telling them
that they had “earned” a shirt. One lady came with her husband and upon
checking, I saw that she had raised $215.
I gave her a ticket for the shirt and when she asked if her husband
could get one, I checked and saw that he had not raised any money beyond his
$15 registration fee. I apologized and
said that he hadn't raised enough to get a shirt and she said “That's because he is a loser”. The way she said it made it seem like more of
a matter-of-fact rather than a joke, but I just smiled sheepishly as they went
away. I asked Ansar if he noticed a flaw
in the system regarding the t-shirt. I
said that there were multiple people at the registration booth and what was
preventing someone from going to different people and
collecting coupons for the t-shirt?
Everyone had a similar list like me and they could cross reference, find
the name and give the person a coupon.
Ansar said that he saw the problem, but we had to trust the people to be
honest and do the right thing. He was
right. If people were here this morning,
it was to support the cause, not for a t-shirt.
Ansar left for another
appointment at 10 am, but it was also the time when the course opened and
nothing much was happening at that time anyways. Now here is the main difference when you
volunteer for an organization that does not run as structured an event as
Chicago Cares. Seeing that nothing was
happening, the leaders like Adam, Mary Kate and Tessa should have come and
checked on volunteers to see if they were doing okay and needed anything or
even relieved. But they probably lack leadership experience and were content in chatting amongst themselves. This does not necessarily mean they are rude;
just need to develop their leadership skills.
Leadership is not about having a title, it is all about character. Many people mistake the quantity of people you
manage for importance, when it’s the quality of your leadership. And it could be while leading one person, or
even none! You lead by example, and I am
afraid I did not see much leadership in that tent. Having said that, I have seen Adam in action
while at the ACS office and he is a genuinely nice person who has the right
attitude to be involved in a program like this.
.JPG) |
| Festivities around us |
Finally, seeing that no one was
coming to our tent, I was allowed to go check-out the festivities that were
happening around us. Besides the usual
stage with live music, there were food tents, corporate tents – with better
food - and a survivor tent as well. I saw
two little girls and they had several items on display like survivor ribbons, wristbands,
cards and even crowns. They saw me
looking and waved at me enthusiastically to come there. I went and was asked if I wanted something and to my surprise, it was free, the idea being to promote and celebrate. This really puts the t-shirt thing in perspective. This however did not stop one of the little
girls from making her own pins using paper and sharpie and was trying to sell them for a dollar. Her mom was trying to tell her this was not
the right way to do it and that everything was free, but the girl did not seem convinced, saying it was her own
idea. Definitely someone that ‘Business Week’ should keep an eye on as
a promising entrepreneur.
I walked about a bit more and
finally came back to the tent to check if there we any other duties. The event was underway, so there really wasn't
much for us and Adam made the announcement that some of us could leave, though
they wanted a few to stay behind to collect post-walk donations. Typically, I would have volunteered; but I
preferred to be on my way to the next event and so left. It had been an interesting morning and while
some things could have been a bit different, the main takeaway for me was seeing all
the people come out to support ACS and for that reason alone, they all deserve
to be applauded - even if they had not received a t-shirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment