(#28) Walk to Cure Arthritis (May 31, 2014) – Part 2 (Helping With Ideas for Next Year’s Medical Tent)

June 8, 2014

Aurora smiling while holding the first aid kit at the Walk for ArthritisPicking up from yesterday

I settled in as the lone medical volunteer. (Though I did find out later that Erin, an intern there helping coordinate the volunteers, was also CPR/First Aid certified. I mean, I believed in myself and all, but I was happy to have an additional possible backup there in case it became really necessary.)

Once I started getting acclimated with the first aid supplies, it started to dawn on me, “Uh, we don’t have ice to wrap on people if they have swelling. We don’t have water to give them if they’re dehydrated. I don’t have any electrolytes. I don’t even have any chairs set up for injured people to sit in.”

(In case you’re wondering what I did have – I had basic first aid kids.)

I actually gave myself a little imaginary pat on the back for noticing this stuff. As we’ve established, I don’t usually work the first aid booth. But because I have passed oh so many by doing so many races, I think I just somehow picked up what they usually look like. So, yay for experiences coming together to help inform new ones!

There was a moment in the morning where both people who were working the volunteer check-in booth (which was located at the same place as First Aid) were away taking care of things. Gabby, this awesomely helpful volunteer showed up and asked what she could do to help.

Aurora giving a large smile with the first aid kit by her face at the Walk for Arthritis
(I know it must be so riveting to see me do slightly different poses with the first aid kit 😉 But I have the photos so why not put ’em in)

Even though I wasn’t really working check-in, I was keeping an ear out for the stations that needed volunteers, but in this moment everything was pretty well staffed. So I asked her to grab some chairs and water.

There wasn’t any extra ice she could round up. But she was helpful in setting up more than we had.

I brought our lack of supplies up to the volunteer leaders once they were back at the booth and had some down time. One mentioned my ideas to Rachel – one of the leaders of this event. Rachel seemed so sweet and nice and thankful for my ideas. She asked me to write them in an email so they could think about what they wanted to do differently for next year.

(Granted, they might not need to beef up stuff too much anyway since after all, this is only a 3-mile walk.)

Either way, that email was really my biggest contribution to the day. I’m, of course, very glad that I had a chill day as the medical volunteer where no one really needed me. I think that’s definitely what you always want when you’re doing medical stuff – for no one to be injured, and all to be healthy. But that also meant I didn’t really do anything. So at least I contributed with ideas, right?

I’ll finish out the day tomorrow.

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