They Really Meant It

About 25 years ago, when I joined Rainbow girls, I heard two things on the night of my initiation: "You get out of it what you put into it" and "You are making friends for life." They told me these girls, most of whom I had never seen before, were my sisters. And they told me the DeMolay boys I would meet at subsequent dances and other activities were my brothers. (Though I hope they didn't mean it literally because I sure kissed my fair share of them.) Since then, I've had many occasions to reflect on the truth of those statements, and I've often blogged about them here. So, I would be remiss if I didn't share the most recent one.

One of the reason's that I was bumped up to Interim Director at work is because I'm the only staff member left who has a lot of experience with our annual programming activities, even if that prior experience was not so much being in charge of things as it was being a part of them. The yearly Land Run event is one of our biggest educational programs and brings about 1000 kids through the museum in one week. It requires a lot of advanced organization and planning and I've been working on it diligently and with more than a small amount of terror since before the first of this year.

It is happening this week and our first day was yesterday. Of course, this is the same week that I also have a raging cold this week (as I may have mentioned in a previous post), our copy machine went out, we are two weeks away from our big annual fundraiser, and any property made up of 10 acres or so is always going to have its own set of problems that demand immediate attention no matter what is happening. Throw in 200-300 kids, teachers, and parents to the mix; and you have my life for this week. Not to mention my own 5 kids and all their contests, meetings, and field trips this week.

Needless to say, when we kicked off the event yesterday; my stress level was high. As I was showing volunteers how to run their teaching areas, making sure teachers and students found the check-in desk, and trying to get my car moved from the regular lot to a smaller lot (where I had left it when I arrived two hours earlier); I wished there were two of me because I knew I would never get it all done before our 10 a.m. start time. I was about to pull my hair out when Chris arrived. She had always been on the volunteer schedule for the day and because I had an extra volunteer in one of the areas I had planned for her; she became my runner that day instead. I am so much more comfortable taking orders from her, but it was nice to have her there to take them from me yesterday. And just as I knew her presence in the hospital room would help me keep my cool when my oldest daughter was born, having her there yesterday for one of the most intimidating days of professional life had the same effect. Thanks Chris! Love you!

The only real hitch yesterday was that in the morning set-up chaos, the sound system people dropped the equipment off and set it up and then left because they couldn't find me to show me how to use it. (There are 10 acres, we rent from them every year, and I doubt they knew that this would be the first time I ever touched it.) I managed to gather all 200 kids to the sound of my raspy voice to tell them the rules and get the programming started and I thought I would have enough time to figure it out before we really needed it at high noon when the kids do a mock run and break for lunch. Until I made my way over to it and saw it covered with more knobs and buttons than any piece of equipment could possibly need. I knew I was in over my head, and I imagined trying to do what needed doing without it. My throat still hurt from the morning announcements and I didn't like that idea too much. But I didn't panic for long.

Almost simultaneously, both Chris and I thought of one of our DeMolay "brothers" who runs a sideline DJ business-something that got its start when he used to bring his stuff from home for our youth dances. We've been friends since high school and share the same birthdate and year which means we actually call each other "sis" and "bro" even though we aren't related and hadn't had the chance to chat that often until I took over as Mother Advisor for Norman Rainbow just over a year ago. I didn't know his cell number offhand, but Facebook on the iPhone is a wonderful thing!

The original plan was for me to text him pictures and have him talk me through the set-up, but ultimately he wound up driving 20 minutes to the museum to show me personally. It took him about 5 minutes to have it up and running, and just in time because I heard him say "testing" just as the kids started lining up to run. When the Sheriff's deputy shot off his pistol and the kids took off (the highlight of each Land Run day) on my first day of 'running the whole show', I had Chris on one side of me and Travis on the other. And few things in my crazy adult life of late have felt so very 'right.' It was a great day and I'm so glad to have so many of the people who meant so much to my in my youth still be such a big part of my life today. (And I'm also glad my husband was able to take time off on Thursday and Friday so he can share Land Run with me too.)

I work very hard as the Interim Director because, once upon a time, I was taught to work hard as a Rainbow girl. And I like to think that the wonderful help I had yesterday was a result of all that I once put into that youth order-and am putting in now as an adult advisor. And while not everyone turned out to be a "friend for life," the good ones did. And I am grateful.