(#24a) S.T.A.G.E with AIDS Project Los Angeles (May 10, 2014) – Part 1 (They’re More Than Fully Staffed)

May 17, 2014

Aurora posing with some silent auction materials at APLA STAGE eventI really thought that in this project, there would be no numbers that were A & B.

There wouldn’t be any events that were only half done because it wasn’t like I was going to get lost on a course or something. It would happen, or it wouldn’t. But alas, here we are at 24a.

So, what is S.T.A.G.E.? It stands for the Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event, and it’s billed as the world’s longest running musical theater AIDS benefit.

This was a group I was pretty excited to work with. I will admit before going that I had stretched myself perhaps a bit too thin, and I was pretty tired and felt I still had a lot to do over the weekend. But, I’d made a commitment. I wasn’t so tired or busy that I couldn’t handle it. So, I got my attitude in check and made my way to Beverly Hills.

When I got there, I saw a big group of people from an organization called One Brick. Apparently it’s an organization that gets people together who want to volunteer for things. I think it’s supposed to be a way to meet people while volunteering for stuff. I don’t totally understands what differentiates them from Meetup or Volunteermatch.org. But I like learning about things I’ve never heard of, so that was cool.

Once we got there, they told us we’d all be working the silent auction. We stood around for a bit waiting to see where we’d all be assigned. Then someone started walking around assigning people to tables. This was the most attendant-full silent auction I’ve ever seen.

Granted, I have not been to very many silent auctions in my life (just the two I’ve volunteered with this year and one with a friend from America’s Got Talent who was being honored at a charity.)

But they were certainly fully (more than fully) staffed with volunteers. There were 2 – 3 volunteers for every table of stuff. And there were still volunteers left over!

And that was it. That was all there was to do – work the silent auction tables. They didn’t really know what to do with the rest of us. They said we could float around in case anyone needed help. I did that for a bit, but quickly saw that no one was going to need help. And if they did, since there were multiple people per table, one of the extra people could always leave to go do whatever was needed.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

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