My Day At The Historic Re-Opening of Virginia Key Beach (Part 2)

Part 1 to this story is here: http://escapeconcretejungles.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-day-at-historic-re-opening-of.html

I'm not a morning person. I will never be "chipper" with or without coffee. Monday-Friday I have to be at the office by 8 a.m. sharp. So it goes without saying that on Saturday's I like to sleep in- the later the better.

So when I signed up my two girls and I to volunteer at the re-opening of VKBP I took solace in the fact that I wouldn't have to get there until 11:30 a.m. That would mean at least three extra hours of sleep for me. Unfortunately I stayed up until 4 or 5 a.m. that morning so when my alarm rang out I kept hitting the snooze. Somewhere deep down in dreamland I knew I had to get up- I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. After one of the kids dragged me kicking and screaming into the bathroom to get ready I finally became coherent enough to pull myself together and get on the road.

The directions provided to us by Quentin, the volunteer coordinator were great. One of the things that annoys me to no end are people who give bad directions and get you lost in the source, burning gas and precious minutes/hours that you can never get back. But I digress. After a long journey down to the end of I-95 and across a long bridge we arrived to our destination unscathed at 11:40 a.m. Parking was a breeze at this point because the "official" kick-off wasn't until around 1 p.m.

The one thing that kind of rattled me at first was how hot it was that Saturday. It had been cold all throughout the week so I didn't expect the heat to come back full throttle so soon. Worse, the t-shirts they gave us to wear were bright yellow. I could see huge bumble bees and wasps buzzing around the park and I was concerned one of us would get stung at some point during the day. I'm allergic to stings, but decided to play it by ear and hope for the best.


After a somewhat disorganized sign-in process (they should really print out a roster beforehand to avoid confusion on the day of events) the girls and I went inside the VKBP Trust building and changed into our t-shirts. Quentin asked for five volunteers to run a table for the kids. My girls and I, along with two other volunteers named Luz and Victoria were put in charge of "promotions" for the historical exhibits displayed around the park. We strategically placed the table off to the side of the children's playground, stocked up with coloring books, crayons, and paper to make oragami creations and got to work. We quickly designed some oragami boats, paper fortune tellers and drawings of our own and decorated our table with them to spark the children's interest.

We used a hook, line and sinker approach. The decorations were the hook. The line was the opportunity for them to draw and design things of their own. The sinker was that we had a paper called a passport to give to them that listed all the historical exhibits. If the kid's visited each exhibit and got the passport stamped as proof of their visit they could return the passport to us and win a prize. It was a good way to get the children to learn while having fun and enjoying the beautifully renovated park.

The experience was so incredible. My girls, especially my 14 year old loves small children so she was thrilled to help them draw and color all day. When things got slow around our area she would go into the playground and talk to parents to coax them into bringing their children over to our table to draw for us. The parent's and kid's were great for the most part. Of course there was an occasional parent who would make comments like "Saturday is for fun, not for learnin. They learnt all week. No learnin today." But hey. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.


At about 3:30 Quentin came over and scooped up Luz and Victoria because he needed help out in the parking lot directing cars. The kids and I held down the fort until our first shift ended at 4:30. Of course when a day is so blazing hot like that Saturday was the atmosphere must cool itself off. Right before we were scheduled to turn the table over to the next shift the skies opened and started pouring rain. We scrambled to pack everything up in the boxes and ran for shelter in the VKBP Trust building. Once inside we freshened up, cooled down, had a few drinks and just took a breather. I loved working with the kids but I could see the day out in the sun had drained them. I was nursing a major migraine headache myself and considered just going home. But the girls insisted they wanted to stick around for the second shift so I conceded.

Our next assignment would be to work the V.I.P. tent way across the park, over by the soundstage. All throughout the day we had been oblivious to the adult population. We heard the performances and local djs broadcasting from the soundstage but didn't focus on what was being said or what was going down. Anyone who works with children knows they command your full attention. So when we were directed to the V.I.P. section I had no idea what to expect. Let's just say I should have expected the unexpected...