2012 Volunteer Stats

2012 Totals:

372 as of 1/2/2013 final count for 2012
371.5as of 12/24/2012
367.5 as of 12/19/12
347.25 as of 10/29/12
317 as of 10/10/2012
300 as of 9/30/2012

The 2012 list of organizations that I have volunteered for

FIRST Robotics put me at 100 hours.
Art On The Square
Midwest Salute To The Arts
Circus Flora put me over 200 with 206.75
KDHX
Sheldon Concert Hall
LouFest
Kiwanis of O'Fallon and Fairview Heights
O'Fallon, Illinois Adopt a Street Litter Pickup
Red Cross
Spencer Kennel and Pet Rescue 
Toastmasters Speech Contest

Shiloh Homecoming
U City Jazz Fest
Strange Folk Festival 300th hour.
Pork With Passion
Wine, Dine, And Jazz
Salvation Army Sign up here.
Rotary

Places having fund raisers in combination with others
The Shanti

Cancelled Events
Wingsfest - rained out by remnants of Hurricane Isaac.  Lesson learned is that if you plan a hurricane, time out the residual rain better.

Weather....It doesn't always play nice

This upcoming weekend was suppose to be the Midwest WingFest (Aug 31 - Sept 1).  Always a bummer when things get rained out.  Sometimes its a few minute thing and be okay for going on but sometimes not so much.  Local forecasts are predicting 3+ inches of rain over Friday and Saturday with the possibility of 10".  May just get some wings from one of the list of participating wings places and that should cover me for wings this weekend.

If boomerangs have taught me anything, its that everything can be set up perfect but can still be thrown off by weather.

Art, Tie Dye, LouFest, and Running Totals

Busy weekend over August 24-26, 2012.  Hung out at the Midwest Salute To The Arts, The Shanti & KDHX Tie Dye Fundraiser, and LouFest.  Pretty neat.  Got to help out artists on Friday and Sunday and talk with them.  Got to meet a neat lady that makes didgeridoos.  Also tore down the event and consolidated rental equipment and electrical cords.

The Shanti and KDHX tie dye event was cool.  Got to tie dye a few shirts for other volunteer events.  Turned out pretty well.  Pretty simple process of scrunching up your shirt and wrapping rubber bands where you want them.  It's kinda cool knowing that I can now tie dye my own shirts.  The "tie dye" shirts you can buy at the store seem so generic.  They all look the same.  When you actually do your own tie dye you get the imperfections and that's the way it should be.  No two shirts should ever be the same.  Similar at most but very unique and different.  A lot like boomerangs in that regard.  No two boomerangs should ever be exactly the same, as much as they look like it.  Boomerangs should fly similar but different.  All part of the fun in tie dye and boomerangs.

Got to hang out at LouFest.  Saw Little Barrie, Son Volt, Phantogram, and Dinosaur Jr.  Lots of great music at the event.  Meet a lot of fans of KDHX as well.  Gave away a lot of stickers, fans, and station info.  Even wandered the crowds to give away stickers.  The musician were very melodious and gave me an idea for a new KDHX give away.  The idea has been passed up to the station folks and we shall see where it goes.

I do enjoy the process of spending a weekend volunteering at local events and radio stations.  It gives people a chance to meet their community.

On a side note, it does get me to wonder about organized service groups.  I am a member of the Kiwanis and frequently hear about Rotary.  Seems like they are all in need of members but I still never hear about them, at least from members themselves.  If I weren't a member of Kiwanis, I probably would not know about them, nor Rotary.  Attendance policy is another story.

Think I will try to include stats of how far I've gone hour wise with volunteering as I do them.  I'm not going to retroactivly update posts but I will continue them forward from here.  Therefore I will give the stats as of the details of this post.  Started logging at the 2011 Midwest Salute To The Arts last August.  Moving forward I will only post the cumulative for 2012 and then at some point stand out the year end total.

The totals as of the completion of these events are:
Event year (Aug 2011 to Aug 2012 Midwest Salute To The Arts): 330 hours
Cumulative 2012: 247

KDHX, Thursdays @ The Intersection, and JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound

Volunteered at yet another very cool KDHX and Grand Center event that featured  JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound.  It also happend to be a fairwell party for one of the KDHX fellers.  It was a good show with very awesome soulful sounds.  The band had a merch table for your collections and I did pretty well there.   Love volunteering at a radio station.  Get to see a lot of great events around town and hang out with awesome people.

Volunteering End of June, Start of July

It's been a bit since I've put up a volunteer post.  It's been a slow July for the most part.  Since Circus Flora in June, I got to usher at the Sheldon Concert Series with KDHX where John Henry & The Engine warmed up the crowd.  Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit was the headline group. It was a light crowd but a very good show.  Combination of country and rock with a tones of the blues. That was on the 29th of June.

On June 30 I helped out at Spencer Kennel and Pet Rescue.  It's a neat place with a lot of animals that need homes. If you need a place for your pets to stay for a bit, it's a good place to board your pet for a few days.

Circus Flora 2012

Got to help out at Circus Flora.  Pretty neat show and a neat place to volunteer at.  One of the easy opportunities out there for a show.  It has death defying "stunts".  It has comedy and ooh's and aah's.  Check it out sometime.

Show business is a fickle beast.  Things definitely went wrong.  Most people wouldn't of noticed.  When you watch the show multiple times though, the variations are noticeable.  The cast handled those moments perfectly.  I've helped out over several shows and there were subtle differences.  One on the ariel acts was injured during part of the show.  Didn't see that show.  She is fine, just ended up with a dislocated shoulder.  Unfortunately out for the rest of the run.  It's a neat show to volunteer at.

Interesting Weekend

So this past week has been an interesting one.  If you haven't seen my list you should check it out at some point.  This past weekend (June 9/10 2012) I got to volunteer at Circus Flora.  Not hard work at all. Clean a few seats coated in popcorn and fill a few programs.  Followed by being super friendly ushers and showing people to their seats.  Easiest volunteer work ever.  Get to see the show for free.  Pretty sweet deal.

Art On The Square 2012

The Art On The Square 2012 has commenced for the year.  Pretty interesting to see an area go from regular car traffic to fully packed with people and artists over a four day period.  There is so much that goes on behind the scenes to make it happen.  While just showing up you don't fully get how much goes on.  Volunteering for these events gives a different perspective on these events.

KDHX Midwest Mayhem

Got a chance to hang out at the KDHX's Midwest Mayhem last night.  That is a neat event.  Lot's of music and people and burlesque from Show Me Burlesque.  The City Museum is a pretty neat place.  There is so much to explore in there.  It's an easy place to get lost in.  There's big whales, fake caves, turtles, tunnels, and fake trees.  It is a neat place to just hang out.  Lots of slides too.  One that is 3 stories high and one that is about 6 stories tall.  The 6 story one is worth the walk up the 6 flights of spiral stairs.  If you want to come hang out next year, support local, independent music with KDHX.

US First Robotics Competion 2012

Pretty cool event this year at the US First Robotics Championships.  Got to be a part of the Expedition Team.  Pretty cool.  Get to experience a lot of different events over several days.  Actually got to see part and be part of the competition this year.

First day got to be a pit runner for the FIRST Lego League (FLL).  Mostly involved queuing up teams to go to their practice events.  Involved a lot of running around as one might expect.  Ultimately I helped these kids that worked really hard to get to their rounds while being the awesome leader that I am.

The afternoon involved the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) as a field reseter for the official first day of completion for them.  These are the high school kids with the smaller bots.  Their mission was to "bowl" over crates to release raquet balls and stack the crates back up right side up with at least one ball in them.  There's more to it than that and a lot of was to score lots of points.

KDHX Membership Drive

The KDHX Spring 2012 Membership drive has completed.  Pretty stellar that the station raised 101% at the time of this writing.  It's pretty neat that I was one of the phone volunteers and helped make that happen.  I helped make part of that goal happen.  Yes, I do have a few bucks in there too.  Keep listening folks.  Lots of great stuff coming up.  Get a sticker from me if you see me on one of the many KDHX events.  Don't guarantee I'll be at all of them but I will make what I can.

I have thrown boomerangs in the station using what I could find in the station.  Not sure if it's a first or anything but I'd probably say it was.  New members are not calling full time, so got to fill the time in interesting ways during the down time.

KDHX Concert Series with Guster

Volunteering at a radio station has it's perks.  Got to usher and see Guster with Golden Bloom as the opening act at the Sheldon Concert Hall over in St. Louis, MO.  It was a good show.  Lots of energy flowing with the band and the crowd.  Great random funny stories.  There was even great art.  Michael Landon holding a squid.     Whoa.  There was even a Demon fire drill where the fellas had to play an instrument they were not familiar with.  It was funny.  You should give these guys a listen sometime.

Three out of four is not bad....

Busy day for March 31, 2012.... Started at 7:15am with a Kiwanis Blood Drive.  Got the room all set up and situated for the drive. Food table was stocked with snacks, food, and coffee.  The problem was that the supply truck for the Red Cross never showed up.  GRRRRR.  Don't know the details of what happened yet but I will let you know when I find out.  Early April Fools Joke?

Next up Toastmasters Division 6 contest.  Got to be the Sergeant at Arms and Ballot counter.  Escorted contestants to the sound proof booth and preparation areas.  Interesting experience for doing both duties for the first time for the Toastmasters at a contest.  The after contest hang out was cool at the IHOP too.  Tasty.

Also helping KDHX with their phone drive to collect funds for the station.  It's a 10 day process biannually.  It's a great station.  Member supported.  They can play pretty much anything, as long as it complies with the rules of broadcasting stuff.  You should give it a listen.  I'd bet there is something there for you, if you give it a sufficiently long listen.

Three out of four events that happened successfully is not bad at all.

Change The World

Changing the world is not as hard as it seems.  It does not matter if you're the small fish in the pond or the top dog.  We can all do things that can have an impact on the world.  It can be the little thing such as picking up a piece of litter.  The little things count even if no one is around to observe it.  You can make a different.

The cool stuff I'm doing, you can do to.  You can have the influence over your world.  You can be the person behind the scenes too.  It does not have to start out as some big thing that you have to organize.  There are organizations out there that are out to improve situations of the community and the world.  The Kiwanis, Rotary, or United Way are all great places to start out volunteering and making a difference.  Alternatively if you feel shy and reluctant to meet up with new strange people you can work on it with the Toastmasters.

Anyway's I'm going to be at the KDHX radio station tonight (7p to 9p) and tomorrow (5pm to 7pm).  Give me a call and support a great radio station.  The number is 314-664-3688.

FIRST Robotics Regional March 2012

This past weekend the FIRST Robotics Regional competition were held this past weekend (March 22 - 24, 2012).  It is a neat event.  This years goal for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is the Rebound Rumble, where teams are tasked with collecting and shooting foam basketballs into basketball hoops.  The first day had more cooperation on some of the bridges.  It got more interesting as the day progressed and bugs got worked out of the robots.  The second day really got good.  Robots were tweaked and got better in time.  Scores evened out between the red and blue teams.  There were many more rounds where there were higher scores of 50+ points for teams.  The final rounds really got good with really good shooting and balancing on bridges.  Teams really got aggressive on defense and attempting to get three bots on the balancing bridges.  Lots of robot tipping as well.

It is a neat even to volunteer for.  Sign up to volunteer for them if you get a chance at www.usfirst.org

Edit (4/15/2012):
Finally got around to emptying the camera.  Photos are below of some of the neat stuff going on.

2011 Volunteer Approximate Stats.

Since I do a lot of Volunteering I figure that I would post how many hours that I have put up in a consolidated post.

August 2011 through December 2011 Total: 90 Hours

These are the events that I have logged information for.  These are what contribute to the 90 hours of volunteer time.  I have volunteering at the following:

Midwest Salute To The Arts
Kiwanis of O'Fallon and Fairview Heights
Red Cross
Salvation Army
Pork With Passion
Wingsfest
KDHX
Sheldon Concert Hall
Shiloh Homecomming
Strange Folk Festival
Belleville Chilli Cookoff

Unfortunately I didn't think to start logging events till August of 2011.  Not fully sure of all the organizations that I helped out before August of 2011 but I'm certain that I did help out with the following organizations.  It also means that I probably have more that 100+ hours of volunteer time for 2011.  Alas I'll never be sure. It all helped me get good at volunteering.  Keep an eye out for 2012's stats

Pre-Logging
FIRST Robotics
Art On The Square
Wine, Dine, And Jazz

Salute to the Arts Weekend

Busy weekend this past weekend. (Aug 25 - 28, 2011) The 25th was a setup day just setting up tables chairs, pulling electrical chord for artists, and just making the location look awesome. Went really quick but I didn't get their till 2pm. Only put in 4 hours that day.

I had to get to prior obligations to the O'Fallon Toastmasters and the humorous speech/table topics contest. I did place in both categories. Won myself a few gift cards. Think the system could be tweaked a bit but that's is a matter to bring up with the group specifically.

Anyway...Saturday (Aug 27) for the Salute to the Arts, I was helping the Fairview Heights, Illinois Kiwanis setup their ice cream booth and photo booth. Think it went pretty well throughout the day but the crowd seemed small outside the main event.

Sunday (Aug 28) was a Salute day once again. Helped out some of the artists with breaks and beverages. Watched their pieces as they took off for whatever. Followed though to also tear down the event. Consolidated the tables, chairs, plants, any rental equipment. Helped the musicians a bit to move their equipment.

All in all a good weekend, glad it wasn't raining like it was for the Art On The Square (Art On The Square Post). Weather started warm and in the mid 90's for the first few days but got down to mid 80's for the later days of the event.

Link to the event for future reference Midwest Salute to the Arts. Don't mind the erroneous title it does still say "Midwest Salute To The Masters", it has been brought to their attention for correction.

It's been a busy June... Part 1

I've been taking summer classes this summer.  One of the classes met three days a week for three hours for 5 weeks.  It was a public relations visual communications class.  Interesting, dense, and moved quick.  Think I learned a lot about analyzing visual communications and got some insight of the historical perspective of it all.  It's done now.

Still have five weeks of learning about Oracle Database management.  Meets up one day a week for four and a half hours.  Not bad but it can be a long day.

As for the weekends it started with the Wine, Dine, and Jazz on June 10, 11, and 12.  Did a lot for them.  Started on the 10th with setting up canopies for some of the food vendors.  There was a lot of sand bag moving but it paid off.  Got to explore one of the basements one of the old buildings that are in Belleville, IL, it was a dark musty basement.  Part of the reason I like volunteering is the chance to explore things you wouldn't normally see on a day to day basis.  Also help sort sponsor ads to prepare the folks the next day to set up.

The second day (11th), I got water into coolers.  I also got to be the parking assistant for the bands.  The bands had to park and unload their equipment somewhere and I was the guy that help them out getting their stuff out near the stage.  Got to hang out backstage and pass water up to the bands.

When that portion was done I got to help sell some wine tokens.  Got to feed the people handling people but I also got to sell a few tokens to the crowds.  Also rearranged some of the wine glasses that were being sold.  After the festivities I helped move stuff inside for the night like the wine glasses and papers.

After all of that was done some of us got to hang out and get a few beers while we waited for the storms to roll in.  The winds were pretty bad.  Some of the canopies were thrown pretty far.  Helped out with some of the storm cleanup in preparation for the workers that were going to hang out that morning and reset all the canopies and umbrellas that were knocked over.

On the 12th, the city and Mayor Eckert had some of his city teams out resetting all of the tables and canopies.  I helped pull the wine glasses, event papers, more sponsor ads, and more water.  Reset some of the sponsor ads.  Went back to parking and band assistant.  Got to sample some of the awesome bbq and wines.  After the event shut down we tore down all of the canopies and moved buckets and sand back to the trailers.  Moved picnic tables.  Helped tear down the stage and move some of the band equipment.

The following morning me and a few others put the last of the umbrellas, buckets, stands, tables, ads, and poles back into the trailers.  We moved water to its final resting place for the next event.  We loaded all of the leftover glasses into vehicles for storage elsewhere.  I moved event art into the Art On The Square Building.  Basically cleaned up after the event.

Overall it was a pretty neat event.  The Wine, Dine, and Jazz event and Art On The Square Events were both very neat events.

Art On The Square May 13-15, 2011

Helped out with this years Art In The Square in Belleville, IL. It was an interesting experience. Worked at the event three of the four days. The 12th, 13th, and 14th. The 12 was a Thursday and I helped set up canopies with windbreakers. Moved sandbags to weight them down, Set up flags for sponsor tents.

On the 13th, I moved more sandbags to weight down umbrella stands and umbrellas. Rearranged a few canopies and set up a few of the smaller stages. I also got to vote in the High School Art Fair that was being held at the event.

The last day of the event on the 14th we tore down all of the canopies, removed the covers, and loaded poles into trailers. We put the covers into the abandoned Meridith home to dry out.

Only bad part about the weekend was that it was raining and was cold. All of the artists and volunteers stuck it out. The event still hit it's target amount for the event.

Sound pretty dull but it is the nut shell of what I did at the event. I thought it was interesting. Got to work on several teams that hauled butt to get all of this done in the span of several hours.