How do I know? Because I sat outside for over 5 hours today for a resource fair put on by Montgomery County Job and Family Services. The event was held at the Fifth Third Field where the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team plays. On a non-fall day, this venue would have been perfect, but at the end of September, it was just a little too chilly for our blood.
A view of Fifth Third Field's score board from behind the backstop.Alex and I arrived at the fair around 11:15 A.M. to set up our Ohio Benefit Bank booth. With the typical resource fair gear in tow, we maneuvered around the other vendors and dodged the local TV camera crew before arriving at our humble little table topped in a white plastic tablecloth. After a few minutes I was able to track down some extension cords, and our laptops were up and running with the OBB quick check program.
Or so we thought. My internet access was shaky, with a weak signal at best inside the stadium. And Alex's broadband wireless card was not working at all. Now, this isn't the first time this has happened to Alex. At the last resource fair we attended in Dayton, we spent about 40 minutes on the phone with Verizon customer support trying to get her broadband card to work. But this time when we called customer support, they said the card's account wasn't even registered in the system. Surprise! We tried our best to get the issue resolved through numerous phone calls between Verizon and the OBB state office, but to no avail. So between the two of us, we had one laptop running quick checks.
We did our best with what we had. It turned out that our booth was one of the most popular ones there, and we were constantly flooded with anxious fair-goers looking for help. Even the neighboring booths started referring people to our table to locate more resources. Alex fielded as many questions as she could from people clamoring for fliers, and I turned out the quick checks like a short-order cook. It was noisy in the stadium, so we were yelling all day, and our backs ached from the tense atmosphere combined with the flimsy folding chairs.
But it was all worth it to be able to tell the doubting 62-year-old that she qualified for food stamps, or to inform the 22-year-old man and his young and [very] pregnant wife that they were potentially eligible for medical benefits. We met a lot of people out of work, whose unemployment checks were ending tomorrow and who didn't have any other resources in sight. A lot of the people we met had never asked for help before in their lives, and they didn't know where to start. We realized the impact the OBB could have on their lives; we listened to every story and exhausted every resource we had to help them move forward out of crisis.
We even met quite a few social workers who were attending the fair just to see what was out there for their clients. They were enthusiastic to fill out contact cards so we could get them trained as OBB counselors. And Alex, god love her, went around to every booth at the fair at one point in the afternoon to see if the other organizations in attendance would like to become OBB sites. To our surprise, many of the vendors were already OBB sites and those that weren't were interested in learning more.
All in all it was a great day, especially after my toes and fingers warmed up in the car on the way home. Nothing a hot cup of cider won't fix.
No comments:
Post a Comment