Summer Activities Fair
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (128837)
Gainesville, Florida
April 24, 2016 5:41pm CST
Working for my city's parks and recreation department, we always make sure we have visibility in the community, including attending any local community events. Our department has a very nice tent and banners that we take out to community events, and our setup is pretty eye-catching!
Yesterday, a team of employees, led by our Volunteer Coordinator, was scheduled to attend a big summer activities fair in our busiest park. There were 55 booths set up (including ours), and attendance was estimated at 2,000 parents and kids looking for activities and camps for this summer.
I was originally set to have the weekend off, but our Volunteer Coordinator's grandmother passed away, so he had to leave town unexpectedly, so I volunteered to fill in for him.
Honestly, I was dreading having to work an event on my weekend off, but when I got there and we had gotten everything set up, it turned out to be a really fun event! As expected, there were thousands of parents strolling through the park visiting all the booths. It was a gorgeous Florida spring day, and a wonderful day to be outside! I saw many old faces I recognized, and met many new ones.
The entire event was about six hours long. I ended up having so much fun, that it felt like I was there for less than an hour! We had a pizza vendor set up to the left of our tent, and a snow-cone vendor set up to the right, and both kept giving me and my fellow co-workers free food and drink throughout the day!
Have you ever dreaded going to an event (either work or personal), but ended up glad you did because you had so much fun?
9 people like this
10 responses
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
Today was another beautiful day like yesterday, so it felt really good to be outside these last couple of days!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
@sgbrown Now that's saying a lot right there! I don't know if anyone in the history of mankind has ever said they enjoy doing stuff like that! LOL
1 person likes this
@sgbrown (1638)
• United States
25 Apr 16
@moffittjc I even enjoyed mowing and weed eating the last 2 days! 
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382162)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 Apr 16
Yes I have but I can't remember the circumstances. So is your Volunteer Co-ordinator the coordinator of volunteers (which I suspect) or a volunteer themselves? It was good of you to stand in for him. Sounds like more karma at work. :)
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
Coordinator of volunteers. He's a paid employee, and he oversees all of our interns and volunteers for our department. We have so many volunteers, it's a full-time job managing and scheduling them all!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Apr 16
@JudyEv There's no question it saves a heap of money! But from our perspective, it's not about the money we save, but about what we are able to accomplish with the mountains of volunteers we get! If we didn't have the thousands of volunteers we have out giving their service to the community, we wouldn't be able to do half the things we are able to do! We like to think of it as giving the taxpayers the biggest bang for their buck!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382162)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 Apr 16
@moffittjc That's good. I once worked with a church-based organisation which had a large number of aged care facilities of different sorts. They eventually employed a Volunteer Co-ordinator too. I was a bit ambivalent about the role as it seemed to me having someone actively canvassing for volunteers just mostly about saving the organisation a heap of money. But that might be a bit unfair.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
25 Apr 16
That is always such a pleasant surprise. Your day sounds like it was really fun!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
It was fun and productive! Plus, I brought my kids along with me because they needed volunteer hours for school, so it was a win-win for everyone! I enjoyed the day, and I got my kids to help out at our booth to get credit for volunteering!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
@JamesHxstatic Aren't kids wonderful? Free labor!!!
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (22245)
• United States
25 Apr 16
Actually yes this past weekend. I was a little bit dreading going to the Pickle Festival because of the people going with us, but it turned out to be really fun.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 Apr 16
A pickle festival, eh? I've never heard of something like that! But it sounds like you had fun! I've been to a zucchini festival once, that's kind of close to pickles! lol
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60812)
• Perth, Australia
14 Feb 20
@moffittjc Again! You're so sweet. Very sweet of you to volunteer! I am glad you had so much fun on this day.
I often dread going out. I am guessing that's anxiety playing it's role or depression or me being an introvert or all of the above. I really have no idea but yes a lot of the time I end up enjoying myself.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Feb 20
There are a lot of times where I will dread going out somewhere—especially when there will be large crowds—but I usually end up having a great time. It’s just a matter of overcoming that initial hesitation and just go for it.
1 person likes this
@annaroselock (805)
• United Kingdom
24 Apr 16
Sounds so good! Wish I could have gone 
Lovely of you to volunteer at the last minute too
Lovely of you to volunteer at the last minute too 1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
Anna, you would have loved it! Clear blue skies, mild temperatures, no humidity or rain...an all-around picture-perfect day!
1 person likes this
@annaroselock (805)
• United Kingdom
25 Apr 16
@moffittjc Plus free food and drink? Yes please!
1 person likes this
@zebra2222 (5268)
• United States
25 Apr 16
It's wonderful that things turned out so well.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
Especially since it was so nice out! I really enjoyed being outdoors on a nice spring day!
@IvySaysHi (4603)
• United States
25 Apr 16
yes all the time. that is the relationship between working out and I lol
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
25 Apr 16
This happens to me all the time. It is hard for me to get my butt out of the house to attend events, even social ones. But once I am there, I'm glad I went.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (128837)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Apr 16
Yeah, the free food and drink was the icing on the cake of an already perfect day!
