Trying to find the humor in the situation. There's gotta be some, right? We slaved and slaved away for null results....
Strides for Sax held our second fundraiser of the year..... It was looking to be a big one for us to follow up the sloppy joe dinner in March. We were serving pulled pork sandwiches or hot dogs, chips, baked beans, and beverages. We had a bake sale to go along with it. I spent 3 days myself just making candies, fudge, cupcakes, cakes, oyster crackers, and other goodies for the fundraiser. Several others made goodies for it too. It was held at the Union Center here in Albert Lea 11-3. We had ads in the Tribune and Shopper, KAAL TV, Visitor's Bureau, Tribune Weekend Planner, and posters almost everywhere, plus the word-of-mouth advertising for over a month. Everything looked like it was falling into place. We even got the rental fee waived for the Union Center. Talk about Great!!!
Then it was Saturday....... I was up early, had the car packed.... ready to go get the buns for the lunch. Got to Hy-Vee, gave them my name - No one knew anything about them!!!! First bad sign. 1 customer service rep, 1 bakery call, 2 intercom pages, and 3 managers later, and the buns were tracked down. Yes, I ordered them in advance. About a month ago. I talked to Steve. Oh? Steve didn't say anything or leave a note?? Here's my receipt, I paid for them yesterday. He said they would be here after 6 am. Tom rang me up. Is he here? Half hour later and I was on my way to the Union Center. Damn, I'm running late.... I had the key, supposed to be the first one there.... Oh, no one else is here yet!! Need to get the food started!!! Grabbing the roasters, put pork in one, hot dogs in one, beans in one...
Mandi was the next person there.... she had brought some of the buns that wouldn't fit in the car. She, Raine, and I hauled the stuff in. Mostly them as I was trying to get food going and coffee made, etc. This meat doesn't seem to be getting very warm. The roaster was warmer earlier. The beans are ice cold!! The hotdogs aren't warming up either!! What the?!?!?! More of the team started arriving. I told them what I had been doing and everyone jumped in and started getting ready, finishing setting up the bake sale... But why wasn't the food warming?? And the CD player isn't working???? Tripped a circuit. Try another outlet. Another circuit!! On and on!! I can't even count how many times we tripped the circuits!! My small roaster was doing fine heating up the pork - until I plugged in the coffee maker!! Tripped another!! Pretty soon it's 10:45, my sister is on her way to pick up food for her coworkers, and nothing is done!! We got the hot dogs and meat going finally. Beans are cold - throw them in the nuker!!! CRAZY!! The beans were STILL cold when our first customers showed up.... fortunately it was someone I knew, we nuked more beans - crisis averted!! Supposedly....
We didn't expect a huge rush right at 11. After all, the Family Fun Fair was going on at the mall. And the Fountain Lake 5 run. We figured people would start showing up after the run and on their way to/from the fun fair. Oh, here's another couple coming in!! Oh, we know them too.. My Great grandma and cousin. A little later - oh, here's someone else!! It will get busy. We still have some more time!!
A flop. A disaster. How else to describe it.... unknown. Our total turnout: 10 customers (not counting the 10 takeouts). After all of the advertising we did and all the work that went into it, and running to Northfield to get the t-shirts the night before, it was a hard blow to us all.... Now to recover from this.. disaster. The team is rallying together and brainstorming.
Only 2 weeks until the walk. Next fundraiser won't be until after then. But then after that, we have a few more ideas we may try out.... If the team hasn't lost heart. But our team is great. Don't think a little bump will deter them much!!
Thanks to the team for all their work in spite of the lack of turnout!! Erin, Brian, Steph, Brandon, Scot, Saxon, Raine, Damion, Zack, Sam, Mandi. You all did fabulous!!
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