Did you know that heavy cream, as it sours in the warm sun, gets really stinky and really slippery? Now hundreds of people in my adopted hometown know it, in intimate detail. But all that aside, today was a good day. Long, tiring, and hot, but good.
When I decided to make this my mandatory agent volunteer project for my brokerage, there were two people signed up on the pie-making list, one person signed up for set-up, and no one signed up for cleanup. We kept sending around volunteer sign-up sheets at Rotary meetings, and they came back without a single new pen mark, for weeks in a row. So I thought I was going to come in like a hero with my team. And then a couple of days ago, the sign up sheets were completely full, and they were talking about people coming as early as 6 am to set up tables and build pies. By the time we arrived at 9 as planned, the other crews had gone through all of the whipped cream pie making, and there was little to do except go get coffee and wait for the next wave of tasks. We did as we were bade, and had breakfast, and then came back to help set up the scene and check in people who had tickets or needed to buy them. I was back on duty with the credit card register on my phone, and my volunteers were scattered around the block, giving ponchos to arriving participants, hosing whipped cream off of teams after each heat, and filling in as needed. It wasn't quite the organized feat I'd hoped to pull off, but it was greatly appreciated as the contest got underway and hundreds of people filed past us.
The lessons we learned were many. This sort of thing takes months more planning that we gave it. The team competition went on way too long. We should have made more pies, or had fewer team heats. It would be better done when the weather is a little cooler, although I had thought an 83 degree day would have been sufficiently cool. (I was wrong.) We needed to have a clear presentation of the needs and processes to all volunteers. And we needed to make sure the public understood that the cream we used was not wasting food. It was at its expiration date, and thus unsellable, and donated by the local dairy. It still wouldn't have helped the guy last night who asked me whether they would be vegan pies, and who declined to buy a ticket because they weren't. Ah, Boulder county.
While I have my opinions about how the team competition can be improved, it did prove very popular with the participants. There were three teams for kids 10 and under, and I caught up with the winning team at the end. They had my favorite pie-themed name of all the teams, adult or child: The Rhubarbarians. They liked the trophy I made, and all of the kids signed it in Sharpie so it would be a memento for them all. It made me so happy. In fact, both of my trophies were well-received. I got pictures of the presentation of the other one too, and a team of teenagers took the top prize. I also snapped a photo of the mayor as he was checking in and being interviewed. He won his face-off with the superintendent of schools by a vote of the crowd. There were several people in themed costumes, some of whom I managed to capture in digital imagery as well.
I had one pie to throw in the grand melee at the end. They were running out of pies and ended up asking people to throw one instead of two, and to hand off one to people who had none if they had already picked up their two. I had been fairly well covered with my plastic poncho, and was starting to collect plates off the ground to throw away when what I assume was a total stranger looked at my clean (ish) hair and asked, "How did you remain unscathed?" She then plunked a nearly-full pie directly on my hairline. I just laughed. It was the whole point of the day. By the time I came home, completely exhausted, crawling into bed, the cream had dried in my hair and started to sour significantly. I had to lie in bed for more than an hour before I just couldn't tolerate it and went to shower it out. I'm pretty sure the smell has lingered in my room, though. Not the best souvenir from the day. There were many others that were much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment