My daughter is one of the main organizers. Over the past few weeks, more and more of the responsibilities fell onto her plate, and as that happened, she started recruiting. Around the dinner table.
First, could I please help with serving drinks at the café on the night of the event. Okay, that didn't sound too hard. Then, volunteers were in short supply, so I said I would ask some of my students if they'd like to help. That turned out well as several were eager to get involved in a community event. It's a great chance to practice your English, I told them.
I also asked one of my students who has studied piano for 15 years if he would be part of the entertainment line-up, and he said yes, he'd like to do that! So far so good.
Now today, we're right up against a firm deadline, as the event is tomorrow. Ms. Organizer Extraordinaire commandeered our kitchen and has been mixing, tasting, adjusting, and stirring all day. She's in charge of drinks. Because children will attend this event, the drinks are hot and cold non-alcoholic drinks with funny names like Hazelnut Mutt, Irish Setter, French Poodle (those are the flavoured coffees), Mount Everest, Boo Boo Berry, Cherry Chill (the kids' drinks) and Vienna Cooler, English Garden Sipper, and Southern Belle (cold drinks for the adults).
Other details also needed taking care of. After dark, a covert operation was mounted. Undercover agents were eight-year-old son and Mom (names are withheld to protect the guilty). Tools: garden snippers. Destination: tall hedges with brilliant red leaves. Result: beautiful centrepieces for the tables.
Of course, we'll have to find some time, probably after the event, to clean up what's been left in our wake as we dashed from one task to the next. This is the garage floor where the table arrangements were produced!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was making signs with chalk and blackboards. The boards are 36" x 30" and will hang above the café table. They turned out quite well, if I do say so myself!
Now, it's quarter past midnight and I've just finished assembling nine posters, the edges of which needed trimming so the poster panels could be overlapped and taped.
All these jobs are more difficult than they first appear, and even if we correctly assess the difficulty right from the start, they always take longer than we first anticipated.
Tomorrow . . . well, it's actually already that day . . . will be a very busy day, with lots of to-ing and fro-ing, and with setbacks and upsets, no doubt. On the other hand, tomorrow night, when it's all over, and we're the last ones to leave the hall, we will be able to look back at the event and know that we did our best.
This kind of project, where family and friends all get involved, is a great way to teach kids about what it means to be in a family. A family supports you. A family helps you. A family bails you out. A family puts their heads together to come up with creative solutions for whatever problems crop up. A family works together right to the end.
That lesson is a valuable one.
1 comment:
Well well well......
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