works of wanderlust

Tag: volunteering

  • weekend wrap, twelve

    I missed a weekend update last week, but mostly because it would have been more of a six day vacation update that spanned a weekend, and that whole trip was a bit of a blur of driving and eating and kayaking and by the time I sat down at a keyboard again it was nearly a new weekend and seemed like it was all a bit of a fading memory anyways. 

    This past weekend was another long one, but officially so with a statutory holiday dropped on the Monday. 

    That means it looked something like:

    Friday, after the Kid got home from work and we didn’t feel like cooking in the heatwave we drove out to one of the bedroom communities to redeem a coupon for a free piece of cake. Well, we ended up having dinner of course, and a dash of nostalgia at one of the two remaining locations for this nineties restaurant that used to be everywhere when I was a teenager. It was solid.

    Saturday we made our way to the Heritage Festival for our exploration day. I hadn’t done much work there this year because they were a bit more organized and setup turned into a quick one-night affair that I missed rather than the usual four day drawn out event and race to the finish line.  We ate and strolled and got way too hot in the summer sun.

    We all went our separate ways for a few hours, but the Kid and I reconnected at the house for a light dinner and then went to watch the new Fantastic Four movie at the theatre, burning off the rest of the day in air conditioned comfort.

    Sunday, Karin and I got ready pretty early and made our way back to the festival to work at least one formal shift.  I cooked crepes for a few hours and she ended up at the cash service counter.

    But our plan was short lived and we had made dinner plans with C&A (for various reasons, not the least of which was to celebrate the one year-ish anniversary of our mountain hike vacation) who dropped by for a home cooked meal, birthday week cake for A and then a couple of games well into the evening.

    I joined some last minute plans for a holiday breakfast run with the crew (at least the few who are still around in earlyAugust) and we ran five klicks and then went for bacon and eggs.

    While I was running I got a text that they could use my help at the festival whenever I could get there, so Karin dropped me off shortly after noon and I spent the next ten hours on site, mostly cooking but then helping tear down and pack up as we closed up shop around six and ended the festival weekend for another season. I got home pretty late and pretty much fell asleep as I was clambering towards bed.

    A whole week of fun crammed into a three day weekend.

  • Marshalling Report: Five Peaks

    Sunday Runday and rather than lacing up to run this morning, I instead bundled up warm and packed my lawn-chair down to the local dog park where I’d signed up to volunteer to help out with the sixteen kilometre-long 5 Peaks Trail Race.

    The 5 Peaks series is a race that I’ve tackled myself multiple times in the past, particularly the edition of it that happens to run through the trails of the dog park that is a five minute drive from my house.

    This year, with a couple friends opting to run it and a couple others choosing to do their part for the local running scene and volunteer, I sided with the volunteer crew and held down a station about three kilometers into the course (and at the top of a grueling hill) waving runners around a detour and cheering them on by clapping until my hands were numb.

    I admit I don’t volunteer often enough… though that frequency is greater than zero.

    As simple as it is, even a little race like this one for a few hundred people took (according to the thank you email that came to my inbox this evening) seventy five volunteers, each working about six hours to make the race come to life.

    I’ve plodded through many courses myself and waved and thanked hundreds (if not thousands) of volunteers who’ve stood beside intersections or manned water stations or handed out swag or helped me find parking for my vehicle.

    It makes me realize that in a year where I’m still a little less than keen to run a heap of actual races, it might make a lot of sense to find ways to participate without sneakers and a bib and to bring that volunteer frequency number up a lot higher in relation to my finisher medal count.

    It’s about keeping the sport strong and vibrant.

    It’s about giving back to something that has given me a lot over the years.

    And it’s a warm and fuzzy feeling all around, too.