In addition to our volunteers being kind, generous human beings…they’re also quite reslilant and adaptable to change. Here’s the recap for our February 2018 giveaway.
As a guideline, we try to set our giveaways to occur once a month on the third Sunday. Sometimes that means it will interfere with holidays or big events going on in the Austin area. It just so happened, the Austin Marathon took place this Sunday as it did in the past. Unlike last year, though…the route was changed to go through East Austin and very close to our spot under the bridge at 7th street. The associated road closures and parking snarls caused us to make some last minute changes to how we conducted the giveaway.
Luckily, we found an available parking lot just south of our regular location and set up there. Our President did a live video from our Facebook Page:
We set up our orange canopy and our volunteers found us! We adapted our giveaway line and set up in the south parking lot underneath the bridge. We scrambled to get all of the tables stocked with stuff, but we were able to have the event without an issue (albeit 20 minutes later than normal).
Through all the street closures and confusion, we still had a great giveaway. About 26 volunteers came out to help 141 individuals experiencing homelessness. Our Love to Read Book Drive enabled us to have 3 tables full of books and magazines that were very well received. Many of our guests took several books. A lot of folks came over from the north parking lot to the south parking lot once they saw us setting up.
We are especially grateful to the generosity of our donors and volunteers that help us do this valuable work. We’re also pleased to have volunteers that are so resourceful and flexible to change (including ignoring some street barriers for a good cause).
Next giveaway is March 18th, 2018! We hope to see you there.
