| The significance of this photo will become clear by the end of this post. |
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| Ridin' the rides at McArthur, Ohio's Wild Turkey Festival, May, 2012; more photos at end of post |
Our booth is in the "craft tent," although no crafts are being sold there this year. The booth next to us is selling fanatically pro-gun t-shirts, catty-cornered to us is the rifle raffle booth, and just down the way is hunter's paradise bed'n'breakfast and the mildly vigilante Community Crime Watch. United Way and the local community college are strange bedfellows with these neighbors, but true to the spirit of this place, we all just get along anyway.
Good-heartedness is part of the nature of this underpopulated rural county. The local pro-gun secret-KKK-member redneck will still stop and change your tire for you, or pull over to the side of the road to help you carry a piece of furniture up the porch steps, or chip in a quarter for your cup of coffee at the Quick Stop if your're short on change. That's the side I focus on. That's the side I'm depending on for United Way of Vinton County.
Everyone's been a client at some point in their lives...gotten food from a pantry, spent a night or two with the domestic violence shelter, had a ride from the RSVP volunteers, or had kids in the mentoring program at school, or had a mom or dad get Meals on Wheels from the Senior Center. This is the United Way. These are the non-profits we fund, serving the young, the old, the sick, the hungry, the scared, the needy in our community. I am counting on local good-heartedness to establish a tradition of local funding for the United Way.
The Wild Turkey Festival is hot, loud, countrified, well-gunned, cammo-clad, confederate flagged, stroller pushing, corn-dog eating, country music listening, karaoke singing, pick the dropped sucker up off the ground and give it back to your kid doing, rides whirling, political glad-handing, neighbor greeting, good old fashioned fun. The media is different from 100 years ago, when people came in by rail from neighboring towns and the parades featured horses instead of SUVs, and we have the illusion of Little-House-on-the-Prairie wholesomeness, but I bet the feeling and mood are more similar than different.
I suggested a booth at the festival two months ago at a board meeting, wondering which way they would go. The UWVC board is pretty genteel, but also pragmatic. The support for the booth was enthusiastic (if not unanimous) and every single board member who committed to something for the booth carried through with it. As I write, the booth is being staffed by board members--there will be a board member there for every hour of the festival (working either in pairs or with me). And they are selling split-the-pot tickets and chatting with old friends and new and chucking little babies under the chin, and ignoring tattoos, and actually having a good time.
The support of the board has been wonderful. I am struck again and again by how badly they really do want to wake Sleeping Beauty with a big old smack on the lips and get our little local United Way on everyone's agenda. Their support makes it fun for me, too, and completely removes the sense of martyrdom with which I anticipated the project.
We may make some money from our split-the-pot raffle, but the real goal is to talk to people about what we do. To switch children's literature references for the third time, we are the littlest Who from Horton Hears a Who. We're shouting strong and together: "We are HERE! United Way of Vinton County is HERE!"
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| Rifle Raffle |
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| French fries by the bucket. |
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| My friend Mindy, representing both the pregnant women and the stroller-pushers--you rock, Mindy |
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| Karaoke contestant on the main stage |
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| Examples of shirts sold next to us |
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