184 hours, give or take. That is roughly how many hours I contributed to Sunday’s fundraiser event for Central Community House. Of course, some of those hours included me taking lunch breaks, having conversations with my co-workers, and completing other tasks. However, since June 6, for 184 hours, this fundraiser loomed over me, always in the back of mind, despite other tasks I completed.

Yet, only 5 hours. Roughly 5 hours is how long the actual fundraiser lasted and it went by fast. At times during the event, it felt as though I had not actually put in those ~184 hours, because there were moments when my supervisor and I had to complete improvisation. Granted, this is the first time Central Community House has ever put on this event. Nevertheless, I think the main reason is that event planning is just a weird process that sometimes feels like the event is planning you.

Still, the event was great and I enjoyed it even though I was working it. The food vendors that I secured, 39 Below Frozen Yogurt and Feed Me Sandwich Kings showed up on time and with beautiful presentation of their food. Feed Me Sandwich Kings garnished is sandwich and taco samples with flowers. 39 Below’s mini sundaes were accompanied with cool, rustic signs and the owner and her partner volunteered to man their own station which was great. Both of their samples were delicious!!! I cannot decide which Fro Yo flavor was my favorite between the Greek Honey Yogurt with fudge and the Pistachio with coconut. In addition to the food. building relationships with these vendors over these past few weeks is one of my favorite outcomes, especially for the owner of Feed Me Sandwich Kings, who is Black. Black owned businesses in Olde Towne East, and in general, can be hard to come by. So, it was great to support his business. When I visited him at his restaurant to discuss details of the event, he was so excited to see his logo on the flyer. It was heartwarming and reminded me that my role as a non profit leader is not to give anyone power or “save” them. They already have the power. I just need to give them a seat at the table or a boost. The event, which is called “Grapes for Good” (named by me) by the way, also featured wine and a raffle with amazing prizes, both at a cost.

For the most part, everything was perfectly set up. But, we needed people to show up. As a result, I was sent in a hurry to St. Gebriel Ethiopian Church to distribute flyers to the people who were in line for Olde Towne East Home and Garden Tour tickets (Our event is at our satellite location on Bryden Rd. which is near one of the stops on the tour. It is why we chose to have our event on the same day.) The mission was a bust. I barely could find parking, was hot, waited forever to speak to an OTENA members because they were so busy, and when I finally laid the flyers on the check-in tables, I feel as though tour goers barely noticed.

I arrived back at the location for our fundraiser and made an ignored attempt to pass out flyers to tour goers who came off the tour shuttle in front of the fundraiser. I nearly gave up when one of the youth from Central Community House came to the rescue with some chalk. The youth, Avonte, is an artist in Central’s Transit Arts program. He came to me with the genius idea of advertising the event on the sidewalk! While he began drawing on one corner, I tried to write “WINE” in the middle of an intersection; I only got to write “WI”.

However, as expected, Avonte’s plan was a success. He continued to draw while I spoke directly to the tour goers who passed us by. With each new corner that he chalked up, we watched as the event became filled with people. I even assisted him by drawing some grapes.

Last week, my supervisor and I thought we had the event planned down to a tee. I would have never imagined that I would be helping with last minute advertising by chalking the sidewalk. But, I did and I enjoyed it. It felt great to let go of strictness and let the event plan me. Doing so, is what I truly believe made the event a success.