Although I do not have the energy or "way with words" of Mr. Maiello, I do
share his enthusiasm. Last year, I volunteered for 3 shifts at the State
Fair MOU booth and enjoyed it so much I signed up for 4 shifts this year. I
may try for more if I can find time.
If you have not signed up or have never staffed the State Fair booth, take
it from me - it is a lot of fun! Thomas has elegantly described the
reactions of children so I will not even try to elaborate on that except to
say "ditto". The families and adults are nearly as entertaining. Nearly
everyone has a story or a question and they really do seem to appreciate the
attention they get from us. Incredibly, last year there was only one
question I got more than once and that was "What do I do about the
woodpeckers on my house?" By the way, if anyone has a good answer for that,
please let me know. Otherwise, I am doomed to my stock answer - " I don't
know" or "Keep your caulking gun handy".
One side benefit.- you will be fortunate to share the booth with other
interesting people. Last year, I had one shift with Bob Holtz and he had 4
hours to work on me. So now I am a YMP volunteer! In his defense, it was
not a very hard sell. I was also privileged to work with Manley Olson.
This year promises to be even better. I think we owe a great deal of
gratitude to Thomas, Rich, Jen, and Kate (I hope I did not forget someone)
for all the work since last year to make the significant improvements. I,
for one, am looking forward to my shifts at the fair.
Sid Stivland
Plymouth
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Maiello" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 4:08 PM
Subject: [mou-net] Don't let this year's fair experience slip away
We still have a few prime bird booth staffing spots left for you to jump
into and play to your hearts content. I just got the new spinning wheel
yesterday and it is super fine! I love it! Attracting kids with this will
be like wafting oatmeal raisin cookie vapors across the crowd using a high
volume shop fan. It will be fun just to watch kids' eyes scan and connect to
find the source of the sound as the wheel clicks around to land on a bird
picture for them to identify. Then the joy of having them pic a bird tattoo
or choose a poster for just saying the full name of the bird the wheel
landed on. Meanwhile the accompanying older kids and parents are going to
be latching onto the touch screen monitor and investigating with the MOU
website, or play a game, or explore other software on the new computer
display system. I don't know if I will be able to truly figure the new
gizmo out at first but I got a feeling the people beelining it to the booth
because of it, will figure it out and teach me by just watching them. (My 17
year old daughter still teaches me how to change the setting and use the
features of my cell phone and I have had the same one for some 3 years - she
says to just hit all the buttons and figure it out - yeah right. Here you
go girl. Give it back when you are done fixing it. ;-D)
For those of you who struggled with the low riding captain's chairs we used
in the past, they have been replaced with two gifted swiveling barstools
with padded seats and back support! Now you have no excuse except that you
just haven't taken the time to plunge in. Come join us and have some great
stories to share with your families at Thanksgiving and Christmas or even
sooner when you call them with the excitement you brought back with you
after your shift. I know I do.
Come on! You know you want to!
Here's how:
There are two ways to sign up for a shift. One is on Google Calendar.
1 Go_www.google.com_ (http://www.google.com)
2. Click "Sign In" on the top right hand corner of your screen.
3. Sign in using "mouvolunteer" as your "email" and "ilovemou" as your
password
4. Click the "more" drop down menu item located at just about the G in
Google along the top of your screen.
5. Click "Calendar" from the drop down menu.
6. You will see a calendar centered on today's date. Scroll through until
you get to August 26th 2010 where you will start to see the MOU booth shifts
in red.
7. Click on the shift that you want to sign up for. I find that clicking
on the actual word "Shift 1"(or 2 or 3) is the quickest and easiest.
8. Write your name after "shift 1, 2, or 3", in the "what" box at the top
of the form.
9. Click "save"
10. Log out (on top right hand corner of the screen).
Easiest of all and to remove any possible technical hesitation - and because
we really, really want you to come play:
You can email Jen or Thomas and tell us what shift you want.
Jen Vieth: [email protected]
Thomas Maiello: [email protected]
See you at the fair!!! And don't forget flat bread tacos, real fruit
smoothies, 1919 root beer floats, Aunt Martha's cookies (to give away of
course), pork chop on a stick, fried walley bits (yum!), riding the sky
tram, riding the sky tram back, lingonberry tarts, roasted corn on the cob,
getting the world's greatest veggie sandwich at Nelson's next to the fair
grounds SE, people watching without having to move around (they actually
parade right in front of you) and of course the fish pond and river trash
art - don't forget the raptor show right next door and the emerging
butterflies. (I got hooked on watching the x-gen bicycle stunts doing flips
and spins just a few feet from me. Didn't expect that to be quite so much
fun!) - man! I almost forgot the breakfast and fruit crepes - yummy yummy
yummy!
See you there.
Thomas Maiello
Angel Environmental Management, Inc.
Maple Grove, MN
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