Location: Sheraton Hotel
Date: Friday, November 15, 2013; 5:30-11:00 pm
This year I had participated in
two One Brick events to support ‘Esperanza’
and so when another event showed up on the One Brick calendar for this evening,
I signed up way in advance. But
then Wilson told me about this ‘March Of
Dimes’ event which was being held in the Sheraton, right next door to my
residence. When I say next door, I
mean the next building. In fact,
the patio of my building is a few feet away from Sheraton’s balcony. If ‘Romeo’
was on one side and ‘Juliet’ on the
other, he could woo her all day long. With such close proximity, I had to sign-up and so I pulled
out of the ‘Esperanza’ event and
opted-in as an EC. As I read about
the ‘March Of The Dimes’
organization, I was glad that I was going to be able to help out and in doing
so learn more about what they do.
According to the information on One Bricks website, “Now celebrating its 75th anniversary, the March of Dimes is a national
voluntary health agency whose volunteers and staff work to improve the health
of infants and children by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant
mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community
services, education and advocacy.”
Tonight’s event was a fund-raiser where several chefs from Chicago would
be displaying their wares and our task was to do the usual stuff like
registration, greeting, silent auction etc. Plus, we would have a chance to taste the food. It was a win-win situation for sure.
Wilson told me that one of the
volunteers coming for the event lived in my building. As I took the elevator down
to walk over to the hotel, I saw a girl who was dressed in cocktail
attire. I wondered if it was her
and it was confirmed in the affirmative as I heard her ask the doorman if she
could get to the hotel from the back side. I introduced myself and since it was her first One Brick
event, told her about what we do as we walked over. We arrived in the lobby to find Wilson with a few others and
we waited for our instructions. From
the looks of it, some of our people were going to be assigned to registration
while the rest would be on the silent auction. Rachel, our site representative, was coordinating her first
event and looked a bit overwhelmed.
She gave us a long-winded explanation of what was going to happen at the
silent auction and which left everyone thoroughly confused. But it was just a silent auction and having done
a few of those, its really isn’t rocket science.
 |
| The ballroom |
Wilson stayed with some
volunteers at the registration area while I went upstairs with the auction
crew. We were to be in a big
ballroom with auction tables on either end. I divided the volunteers to
staff both sides and spent most of my time shuttling between the two
ends. Our main task during the
bid process was to answer any questions that the guests may have. We were to ensure that their bids were
being posted in the right way and if the “guarantee
buy bid” was reached, then we were to “close”
that item by removing 2 out of the 3 bid sheet forms. The 3rd sheet was to be then taped to the item,
which was now “sold”. Looking at the items, there were some
fancy things that were up for grabs, including a baseball bat that had been
signed by some Hall-Of-Famer whom I did not recognize. The guarantee buy bid seemed a bit low
and I told some of the other volunteers that it may actually be worth a lot
more on eBay!
 |
| The auction items |
We were going to be very busy with
the paperwork once the auctions closed at 7:30 pm, so I told the volunteers to
start taking their breaks in stages.
There were several food sampling stations spread out in the ballroom and
I went about with some of the volunteers for tasting. As with the ‘Meals On Wheels’ gala, this was outstanding gourmet food and I was stuffed before I
could sample everything. At 7:30,
we all assembled for further instructions from Rachel, who told us that the
auction had been extended till 7:55.
Around that time we stationed ourselves next to the auction items and I
noticed one woman crowding a bid sheet, probably wanting to ensure that she
won. I had a good mind to mess
with her by picking up a pen and pretending as if I was about to enter a
bid. But of course I didn’t, and
she was delighted to win the item when the auction ended.
We closed the auction as
instructed and then started taking the stuff downstairs near the registration
area and arranged it in order for easy check-out. I went back upstairs to help pack 50 bottles of wine that some lucky soul had bid on successfully and which took us 4 boxes and a cart to move down. I could only hope that the winning person had a plan for
carrying it home! As I was packing
the boxes, I saw a video presentation on ‘March
Of Dimes’ organization, where a family talked about how the life of their
children had been changed due to the support that they had received. I have been to several such events
where a video presentation usually drives home the point on why we do it, and
this was no exception. After listening to a
thunderous applause I went back downstairs to
prepare for the checkout rush that was about to start.
 |
| One of the delicacies on offer |
As people started coming to
collect their things, I acted as a runner to get the auction items from the
table to the counter. Even with
our earlier organizing, it was still a bit chaotic and we ended up searching
for the items more often than not.
We were already running overtime when most of the guests had left and
then we helped pack the signs and banners. These were put inside giant heavy suitcases, which I then
had to roll to a car pick-up area.
It took three of us to load it into a SUV and it took almost an hour
to get everything else loaded. It was
the first event for the women who were organizing the gala and it was clear
that they needed our help, especially with the logistics. Kudos to all of our volunteers for
staying back to help, and once again One Brick had been up to the task for a superb cause. That night the walk back to my building was short, but I had come a long way in my appreciation for what ‘March Of Dimes’ does.
No comments:
Post a Comment