The weekend has been an itinerary of work and play. Campaign stuff. Dexter fun. Some non-obligatory relaxing on Saturday night (these evenings are in very short supply). And volunteer appreciation!
The last campaign we used our Malmo bungalow as a mustering point and headquarters. It was conveniently located and there was plenty of space so it worked out quite well. By the end of the campaign I had become accustomed to having the house littered with friends and volunteers after a day of door knocking and flyering. I remember getting up early before teaching on weekends to make breakfast casserole for people to snack on and coming home to my duties as barista. It was really fun to see friendly faces all the time.
Now that I work from home and we have the baby, it's just not as feasible to use the Belgravia bungalow the same way we did the Malmo one. As a result the bungalow acts more as a sanctuary this time around. The downside to this is not seeing the volunteers as often.
So we hosted a volunteer appreciation event! Just some beers and snacks at the Brewsters in Century Park. We picked the location because of its accessibility via train and it was across the street from where Don was door knocking this afternoon. Dan, Leanne, and I biked to the station. Then locked up and took the train.
Here are some volunteer name tags that we use when our people are out and about.
Fruit beers seemed to be a favourite tonight.
Leanne coordinates our volunteers and had the opportunity to put a lot of names to faces.
And there were some regular members of my crew hanging around.
Lisa's name tag dubbed her, "Webmistress".
Dollansky!
Leanne signs people up for our epic flyering and door knocking endeavours in the next three weeks.
Chit-chatting over brew.
Sable, both super sister and volunteer extraordinaire. You don't even want to imagine the hours this girl banked in 2007 when we first ran.
Tables.
Sunset.
Snacks.
Chris, Jason, Leisha.
The corner where our tables were reserved had this arcade game, "Big Buck".
Chris was (surprisingly) appallingly good at it.
His win was on behalf of team Iveson.
Don looks on proudly. It takes a great effort from a lot of people to give a campaign its heart. Fatigue, personalities, and mountains of work aside... the campaign only works because of our volunteers.
What a great cap to the weekend. Kicking back with our fine people and taking a little time to appreciate each other over a drink. Good times don't have to be complicated. And they're often one bike or train ride away.
5 comments:
Hey, thanks for taking a pretty photo of me. I don't even know how many hours I banked last election! I remember dooknocking 4-5 days a week during the home stretch. I felt so fit from all the walking!
I ran one time and didn't win ... but I wasn't as well organized. You haven't mentioned fundraising -- I know that fliers aren't cheap. Not when you have to produce a lot of them ... multiple times. We won't talk about mailings. Have a great campaign! :)
missable - this year you can contribute more in the child-care department!
Freth - It's definitely an undertaking, to be sure. We're very lucky that we have designers, web people, and print-savvy people amongst our volunteer talent, which keeps many costs lower. And having super volunteer power also means basically being able to flyer all the literature the old-fashioned way instead of mailing.
We are lucky lucky lucky.
that is so cool. I also love that first foto of you, stripes on stripes :D
meli - stripes and stripes are good, but what about your recent photos with the painted face? AWESOME!
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