This past week has been super busy at the fair grounds as fair week quickly approaches. Monday and Tuesday were spent processing sponsorship and entry checks, sorting through amazon packages, updating the fair app, and helping create parking passes for people to use during the fair. 

Wednesday, all the fellows met at the Columbus Foundation for a learning session where we were able to hear from Ruth Lomax, who is the vice president at City Year. It was so interesting to hear about her journey from beginning to now and how she was involved in various other non-profits before beginning her career at City Year. It was encouraging to hear how her path was not linear, but how there were highs and lows, and even times when she thought she wanted an entirely different career. My favorite part of her presentation was hearing her talk about the importance of building relationships within the professional and non-profit world. She really emphasized the importance of having genuine connections and knowing how to network within professional spaces. She explained how donors can read right through in-genuine behavior and will not support or sponsor any non-profit they don’t agree with. Another thing that stuck out to me was hearing how careful individuals in power need to be when stating political, or even ethical viewpoints because of the possibility of losing donor support.  We talked a little about how difficult this reality can be and about the indirect ways of expressing opinions. I really enjoyed hearing Mrs. Lomax speak about her career in non-profits and how she got to where she is now. 

Thursday and Friday I was back at the fairgrounds where the entire office received training on how to use and reassign key fobs for the storage lot. The rest of the week was spent helping and processing people who needed to change their key fobs. I also began sending out emails to vendors, and concessionaires regarding promo codes for discounted fair tickets. I was then able to help sort decorations, and begin assembling them for the float the fair will have during the fourth of July parade. With less than 25 days until the fair, things are picking up at the office and I am excited to see what else I will be able to help with! See you next week!

~Elena