The day began with a torrential downpour. The entire length of the 1.5 hour drive north consisted of a congested interstate made worse with never-ending construction. I caught glimpses of the orange barrels through my hyperactive windshield wipers. Fortunately, as I pulled into the presentation site in Piqua (pronounced 'Pick-wah) the skies cleared and the rest of the day was breezy and sunny. I set up my laptop and and carefully laid out my brochures, and sure enough, one person showed up. Hey, it's better than no one! I went through the presentation, answered her questions, and we were out the door in under 45 minutes.
I had some time to kill before driving over to Darke County that afternoon, so I pulled up my list of potential OBB sites in Miami County and got back in the car. Although Alex wasn't with me today, she lent me her GPS (thankfully!) and I quickly programmed all of the addresses for the Piqua agencies listed into the unit. Of course it would have been much more efficient to present to all of these agencies at once, but you do what you have to do. Once again, if they won't come to us, we'll bring the OBB to them.
There were a couple of pretty memorable agencies from this little excursion. The first was a mental health agency in Piqua, where I was able to speak to a director. She seemed genuinely interested in the OBB and said she would "think about it." On my way out, she asked me what my pin was for. I told her about being an AmeriCorps*VISTA member at Shared Harvest and she pointed to a pin on her bulletin board--turns out she had been a VISTA member back in the day, too! She told me that she had started at her agency as a VISTA and just never left. So we had a little VISTA moment.
At the next agency, which happened to be a partner agency with Shared Harvest, I tried starting out by introducing myself as an AmeriCorps*VISTA. But it was my connection with Shared Harvest that got me in the door--they couldn't have welcomed me inside any faster! I gave a mini-OBB presentation to the nice ladies there, but they were mostly interested in showing me around the pantry and opening freezer doors to show me how much food they had in stock. Now that I think about it, they might have thought I was there for an inspection of some sort--nonetheless, I left the OBB brochures with the smiling bunch and went on my way.
By this point it was time to get back on the road, but not before a quick lunch. I drove through a McDonald's on the way to Darke County:
You're seeing this correctly--there are two drive-thru lanes pictured, which eventually converged into one lane for the pick-up windows. I honestly never thought I would have to merge in a drive-thru line. Ah, the life of a road warrior.Arriving in Darke County, I made my way to the Greenville Public Library for my presentation. It was a quaint little building and I navigated the halls+elevator to get to the 3rd floor meeting room. I went through my typical set-up routine, fully expecting to take it all down at 1:05 P.M. and hit the streets just like we did on Thursday in Preble County. After all, we were only able to invite 8 agencies total to this presentation, and if our attendance rate was consistent with that of previous presentations, we could expect less than half an agency to show up. To my amazement, though, a lady from a local agency walked through the door and actually was in the right place! One whole agency! She was chatty, so the presentation lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. When it was finished, I packed up my stuff, loaded the car, then programmed Alex's GPS (who we named "Rita," by the way) to visit the Darke County agencies that hadn't attended the presentation.
And that's when everything started getting really...weird.
I arrived at one agency that I believe served as a shelter of sorts. It was in the middle of a residential neighborhood and looked like the other old houses nearby, except for a sign clearly marking it as a non-profit agency. I stepped onto the porch and found some kind of twisty knob for the doorbell. I turned it a few times but I couldn't hear anything, so I rattled the screen door, hoping someone would hear it and come answer it. But nothing. So then I opened the screen door and tried the knob on the main door--strangely, it was unlocked. Expecting to find a reception area in the front hallway, I opened the door and stepped inside. But the house was dark, with no one in sight. I called out, again hoping someone would hear me and come meet me on the porch. But nothing. Thoroughly creeped out by this point, I stuffed some brochures and my business card with a note in the mailbox and briskly walked back to the car.
Next!
My last stop in Greenville was at a partner agency food pantry located within a church. I arrived at the address to find an empty parking lot with signs pointing to enter at the rear of the building. I drove around to find a playground, no parking lot, and a small construction addition to one of the wings of the church. I walked up to a steel door with a piece of computer paper marked "Entrance" taped to it, tested the handle, but found it was locked. Again, no one was in sight. Oh well.
By this point I only had one more agency--a food pantry--on my list for Darke County, and it was in New Madison. I had no idea where that was, but I knew Rita would, so I typed in the address and followed her directions to a little "town" 15 miles or so south of Greenville. The drive was peaceful. Darke County is about as rural as it gets, so I was surrounded by sunny, rolling fields and a bright blue sky the whole way. I went through the occasional town but they were so small that the speed limit didn't even drop...at least I don't think it did...I never slowed down anyway...
As I closed in on the town of New Madison, Rita alerted me that I was approaching my destination. As the GPS dinged to let me know I had arrived, I looked around, expecting to see some type of warehouse for the food pantry. However, I quickly noticed that I had actually passed the street number I was looking for (271), so I parked and walked back towards the address listed. I walked past 236, 252, 264, 268, and 270--all were houses along the street. I started to cross the street when I saw a mailbox marked "271" on the other side. Bingo! But then I observed that the mailbox actually belonged to an old house with a stained mattress on the front porch. Whether or not it was a food pantry, I'll never know. I promptly turned around, got back in the car, and drove home.
You can tell how much I believe in the Ohio Benefit Bank to drive miles and miles through SW Ohio on the occasional wild goose chase to promote it.
Thank god for GPS.
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