With two weeks to go until Tech Week, I sent out a second long email last night, begging for donations.
There are some nights when I only have 3 helpers (we really need about 10 people) and there are still a lot of food items that we need.
Excuse me while I panic now, over the possibility that I’ll have to finance 600 chicken nuggets, 6 bags of tater tots, 42 cups of fresh fruit, 8 dozen eggs, and 7 crockpots of soup with 10 servings each.
Apparently everyone likes soup, but no one wants to bring any.
Several people responded immediately with a generous list of what they could donate, and I’m thrilled about that.
This morning I woke up to an email that began, “I was waiting for the latest update…” and another one with, “Let me know what else you need. I can contribute more.”
I am trying to balance my gratitude over the generous offers with my frustration that they wanted to wait and see what blanks would be filled in before they offered to fill any.
Frustration is winning. And I can’t let it show, because I am asking people to be generous with their time and donations of food.
My prayer today is for trust: that in the end, we’ll have what we need. If I had a deeper trust, I wouldn’t be so worried about this right now.
I know how you feel. When I’m in charge, I feel the same way. And when I’m not in charge, I’m often one of *those* people! Sorry. 🙂 Have you tried using something like SignUpGenius (.com)? You can put in everything you want, send everyone an email, and they can see what’s needed and how much. I really like it. We’ve used it for potluck events as well as volunteer positions for our AHG troop.
Good luck! I know this is a big job for you every year!
Where were you 3 weeks ago when I needed Sign UP Genius? That would be awesome! Yes, this is a big job but I love it. I don’t sew, and I’m not a fan of selling candy-grams and concessions, so organizing these dinners is the best use of my energy and abilities.
I do tend to like the jobs no one else ever wants, for some reason. NOBODY wants to run these dinners–and I really do love it.
I will be donating what isn’t covered, but it’s going to be hard to come up with 7 crockpots of soup…
I’ll have to check into Sign Up Genius when I do this next (should have a 2-year gap until Little Brother gets to high school, unless they beg…yeah, I’d probably give in and do this for the next 2 years.