VoluntEARS: WE Gives Back event

So today didn't start off great. I had some crappy children and crappy families when I started at flamingo, and after I took my 30 min break and headed to tracking it didn't get much better. I was swamped with people and within the first 5 min I was pushed by some guy since I was apparently in his way of taking his kid's picture. Because asking to move is just too much work, am I right? So after an hour and a half of tracking, when I went to lunch I was in a pretty foul mood. I felt super nauseous and couldn't eat anything so I got some Jamba Juice and ate some popcorn. I am normally a pretty patient person and normally like my job, so maybe it was because I was sick, but the day wasn't going well. I got to Animal Call and Forestry and felt like I was going to throw up on the children and was going to ask to go home but it was so busy I didn't get a chance to call Core Team. I even got ipaq'ed by Krystal and didn't even get a chance to talk before she gave me a thumbs up and walked away. I made it through that hour and a half and took a quick break offstage to compose myself before heading to Gibbon. I didn't make as much as an effort to recruit people or go up to guests, but I still had some decent conversations as I tried to keep myself together. I got to my second 30 min break and pretty much feel apart but figured I just had headquarters to go so I could push threw. Headquarters ended up being the best part of my day and closing went pretty easy (Anastasia even came by to help out since I had helped out with her signal 70 while she was at Animal Call) and I got a second good ipaq for the day/week from Krystal. 

I wasn't going to stay for the VoluntEAR event Krystal had set up, but talked myself into staying. I had signed up and really wanted to do it and felt bad backing out. I also figured I would reward myself with the pizza we ordered at the event. It was a ton of fun. We used old t-shirts (some grey ones from textile services and other colors) which was a cool way to recycle. I guess they have diverted over 500 tons of the entertainment shirts from landfills which is pretty exciting and the doggies at some shelters will get some cool handmade toys! First we cut some shirts into strips and we used a square stitch sort of thing I used to use all the time for the lanyard things I made at Kids Kamp when I was younger to put them together, so I caught on really quickly and was the first to finish so I made so more. It was fun to eat good food, chill with my fellow Wilderness Explorer Troop Leaders, my manager, and the leader from the Nutrition center who taught us how to make them. She is apart of the blanketEARS group which does a lot of crafty things so I might join if I end up staying another semester. At the end we even celebrated Christina's birthday with a cake and everything!

The one dog toy that I made! Super easy and super fun.

So ultimately, while today started on a sour note, it ended on a good one hanging out with people at the event while also giving back.