(#13) Fight For Air Stair Climb (April 5, 2014) – Part 2 (I Don’t Have a Blue Shirt, But It’s All Good)

April 18, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I was doing my best to run around and stay one step ahead.

Anytime I was confident I had answers for a few steps ahead, I took a pause from finding answers and got to helping with loading/unloading the carts.

When it’s possible to jump in and actually do work, I love to be a part of it instead of just telling people “do this” [said in an exaggerated bossy tone with hands on my hips].

So, once everything was in the respective places, people looked at me sort of expectantly with “what now?”

I kept my ears open and heard we needed to cut the fruit. So, I scrounged up some knives and a cutting board, and got some people going on that. I also saw empty tables in recovery. So, we started laying out food. Then I went to find Vanessa to get more instructions.

As more people got there, I started to see more and more how things fit together. I learned that volunteer captains had blue shirts.

Since I had been asked to lead a team, there was definitely part of me that wished I was wearing a blue shirt… But then I thought, “it doesn’t matter what color shirt you wear. It just matter what you do.” So, I didn’t grab a shirt or bring it up. I just went to work.

It wasn’t really an issue to be able to get people to help me even without a blue shirt because Vanessa had already told people to help me in the morning, so everyone just kind of assumed I knew what I was doing.
Plus, people had a generally helpful attitude there. So, we all worked together as a team and it was all good.

…And I had a zip-up jacket which somehow when zipped made people just assume I was legitimate.

So, the next thing I did was help brand the outside of the place. We had a big rolling plastic banner that said American Lung Association on it. So, me and two guys kept rolling off pieces to put on the backs of tents and things.

We weren’t completely sure how to adhere it, but ultimately we went with a mixture of safety pins and strong tape that we somehow materialized from who knows where.

Once things were branded, Vanessa told me we needed to get cases of water up to the roof.

This sounds fun!

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

I'd love to hear from you! So whaddya say?