It’s in the Bags!
(written Wednesday, December 21)
Woo hoo! A banner day, but it didn’t start off that way. You see, it’s the Kid’s Back-Pack Program morning (Wednesday) and while normally it’s a huge thrill to do this, I was worried. We usually put together 255 kits of 12 food items for 4 schools, but today we were to put together twice that (you do the math – I can’t) plus somehow include Christmas gifts.
My main job is to get to the Sahuarita Food Bank early and set things up – go get the crates, count them and line them up; go get the bags, count them and “puff” them out to make it easier for the volunteers. And that I was able to do – I got there extra early because I am always losing count, as you can well imag…” Squirrel!” …ine. But I had no clue how we were going to keep the four schools times the double bags sorted and separated.
I am good at grunt work that doesn’t involved fine motor skills. Want something hauled and tossed? That I can do. Want something organized? I am only going to disappoint you. Think about what would happen if Baby Huey and Dory had a child – how would it respond to a complex task? Well…that would be me. (My hubs Laur doesn’t even like the way I load a grocery cart. He says I treat the cart like a basketball hoop – and I am not exactly Magic Johnson.)
Thankfully, Curt, who is a Sahuarita Food Bank board member, got there early and pointed out that we were going to have a real challenge, and did I have any thoughts on how this could be resolved? I smiled at him, as I was counting bags, and said, “49, 50! I can count out bags! That I can do!” Thankfully Curt knows how to organize things and people and actually likes to do so. He came up with a master plan – but it was a plan that would require many more volunteers to meet the “delivery by noon” deadline we like to keep.
Thankfully, Curt had made an announcement at church the previous Sunday – requesting more volunteers. And – surprise, surprise – I remembered to put out a request for additional help on “the partyline” – a Green Valley RV Park group email.
You know that if I in involved in something, something is going to go awry… Two things happened at about 10 am. Curt got a call telling us that in fact the second round of backpacks bags had already been packaged and that there were no toys to deal with. (I was a little sad about the toys.) And more than twice the usual number of volunteers showed up – exacto knives in hand. No, we aren’t a violent group – we need these for opening up the dozens of boxes.
My goodness, the whirl of activity, it was like watching a school of piranha zero in on a cow carcass. Except it was a lot nicer and less bloody. Blades and empty boxes flew, food got lined up and bagging lines formed. What I had thought would take two hours, took 15 minutes! We have a simple system of throwing empty boxes in the general vicinity of faithful volunteer, Drew. We chuckle about “points if you hit Drew.” Today we may have scored a few.
I am both touched by the enthusiasm of our beloved helpers and embarrassed by my overzealousness in recruiting volunteers. Ah well. At the end of this session, Curt and fellow board member Jacquie gave some newbies a tour of the Sahuarita’s Food Bank’s very humble but very organized abode. To think that this is 99% volunteer run, when you look at the number of venues and pounds of food distributed – it gives you pause.
Unless you are one of the key organizers, then it gives you wrinkles.
Woo hoo! A banner day, but it didn’t start off that way. You see, it’s the Kid’s Back-Pack Program morning (Wednesday) and while normally it’s a huge thrill to do this, I was worried. We usually put together 255 kits of 12 food items for 4 schools, but today we were to put together twice that (you do the math – I can’t) plus somehow include Christmas gifts.
My main job is to get to the Sahuarita Food Bank early and set things up – go get the crates, count them and line them up; go get the bags, count them and “puff” them out to make it easier for the volunteers. And that I was able to do – I got there extra early because I am always losing count, as you can well imag…” Squirrel!” …ine. But I had no clue how we were going to keep the four schools times the double bags sorted and separated.
I am good at grunt work that doesn’t involved fine motor skills. Want something hauled and tossed? That I can do. Want something organized? I am only going to disappoint you. Think about what would happen if Baby Huey and Dory had a child – how would it respond to a complex task? Well…that would be me. (My hubs Laur doesn’t even like the way I load a grocery cart. He says I treat the cart like a basketball hoop – and I am not exactly Magic Johnson.)
Thankfully, Curt, who is a Sahuarita Food Bank board member, got there early and pointed out that we were going to have a real challenge, and did I have any thoughts on how this could be resolved? I smiled at him, as I was counting bags, and said, “49, 50! I can count out bags! That I can do!” Thankfully Curt knows how to organize things and people and actually likes to do so. He came up with a master plan – but it was a plan that would require many more volunteers to meet the “delivery by noon” deadline we like to keep.
Thankfully, Curt had made an announcement at church the previous Sunday – requesting more volunteers. And – surprise, surprise – I remembered to put out a request for additional help on “the partyline” – a Green Valley RV Park group email.
You know that if I in involved in something, something is going to go awry… Two things happened at about 10 am. Curt got a call telling us that in fact the second round of backpacks bags had already been packaged and that there were no toys to deal with. (I was a little sad about the toys.) And more than twice the usual number of volunteers showed up – exacto knives in hand. No, we aren’t a violent group – we need these for opening up the dozens of boxes.
My goodness, the whirl of activity, it was like watching a school of piranha zero in on a cow carcass. Except it was a lot nicer and less bloody. Blades and empty boxes flew, food got lined up and bagging lines formed. What I had thought would take two hours, took 15 minutes! We have a simple system of throwing empty boxes in the general vicinity of faithful volunteer, Drew. We chuckle about “points if you hit Drew.” Today we may have scored a few.
I am both touched by the enthusiasm of our beloved helpers and embarrassed by my overzealousness in recruiting volunteers. Ah well. At the end of this session, Curt and fellow board member Jacquie gave some newbies a tour of the Sahuarita’s Food Bank’s very humble but very organized abode. To think that this is 99% volunteer run, when you look at the number of venues and pounds of food distributed – it gives you pause.
Unless you are one of the key organizers, then it gives you wrinkles.