This event itself was a lot like the California Jazz Foundation’s dinner/silent auction/concert, but the night was much different. I have not seen as many things or people quite as organized as this event and its volunteer coordinator.
Hope University is a fine arts programs for adults with intellectual disabilities. We all know how much I love the arts and truly believe they can help people, so I’m always down to help places like this.
Before I even got there, we got a detailed grid of the exact plan for the night and when and where we’d be helping. I got there, and the volunteer’s room was all set up. I got checked in and prepped on how to do registration. That’s where I spent the first hour or so of the night.
After that was the volunteer dinner break. I believe there was also unlimited food here, but I restrained myself much better than I did with the all the pizza the week before. I didn’t even have a peanut butter cookie (though they looked quite delicious).
After dinner, our jobs for the auction got assigned to us. We each got little clipboards with the action forms – which had all pertinent information we even might need to know taped to the clipboard itself!
They could not have been more organized. Also, they had each of us only assigned to watching one table. So, it was not a big job.
I’m happy to help however places need me to help, but I will say I felt a little on autopilot only having to watch one table.
And I actually have a small regret… When the auction was going on, I almost wrote down everyone who won, just to have it, even if they weren’t at my table. It wouldn’t have hurt anyone for me to do that. It would’ve been quiet and to myself, so there’s no reason I’d need to refrain from doing that.
However, I still had this nagging feeling of “don’t step on anyone’s toes. You’ve been assigned to this one table. Everyone is doing her or his own job. Just allow people do to their jobs, Aurora.
And yet, no one ended up writing down who won the 6th item. Had I just quietly written it all down, I would’ve known! Sigh.
This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.