Donor Appreciation Week

            This past week was a little nuts with all of the Donor Appreciation events. I worked two 13 hour days and ended up getting a three day weekend. That ended up working out super well because Jenna, one of my roommates from last summer, was visiting for the week. So we got to hang out all of Friday!

               I spent my time Monday helping prepare and making sure that everything was in order. It was by far the most tedious day of the week. I had to print and fold all of the table tents as well as print and tear out all of the name tags. I made name tags for both the people who RSVP’d yes and the people who didn’t answer at all, so I had over 70 sheets of paper to tear and put into name tags. It definitely took a while.

               Luckily my evening was a lot more fun. The bowling alley in town has a dollar special on Mondays, so I went with Rachel, Kristen and Colt. We ended up playing three games and spending three hours together, which was great. Surprisingly I won overall with a score of 324. I wasn’t doing super great at first, but once I warmed up I got a ton of spares and strikes. It also helped that we had bumpers because Colt is blind. I took the victory with pride for two reasons: 1) Colt definitely beat me last year. (Everyone laughs at me for that, but Colt is an amazing bowler. He bowled a ton before he went blind two or three years ago. He still bowls often so he’s pretty good.)  2) The last time I went bowling I failed to break 100 and also lost a bet. I almost had to sing at the UPC Christmas party. Almost being the key word there. (I definitely got out of that by running out of the office after the party ended. No shame.)

               Tuesday and Thursday were crazy, amazing and easily my favorite days of the summer. Tuesday started out normal with our morning gathering at the museum. There was a huge turnout because most of the donors came in town for the week of events, so that made it a lot of fun. After it ended I ran around and helped get everything prepared for our Summit Club Dinner that evening. There’s something so special about the day of an event. Everyone rallies and works together to make everything happen and it’s just incredible. Watching everything come together was a reminder that I definitely got it right with my major. 

The room setup!

               The dinner was a great time. I helped Joanna hand out name tags and greet people as they arrived. I made follow up calls and e-mails to the people who had forgotten to RSVP so it was nice to actually meet them and put a face to a name. After the program started, we all got to eat (the food was amazing, foodservice really knocked it out of the park all week) and watch an acoustic band play some music. They were great and the girl in the band was a YMCA camp counselor in college so she told her story, which was cool! After that we got to watch the impact video that had been filmed throughout the summer and it was phenomenal. There were stories ranging from staff members loving their job to a woman who got free housing for her and her five kids after having to temporarily live in a tent. It made me so proud to work for the Y.

The whole philanthropy team! (Also note that I'm still the shortest and I AM IN WEDGES.)

               The night went by crazy fast and before I knew it, we were cleaning up and getting ready to go home. I loved spending all that time at work but I was definitely ready to get some sleep. I went right to bed so I could be ready for Wednesday, which was just a day of making sure that everything was in order for Thursday. After work I went out to eat with Jenna, Erica, Chandler, Sarah and Rachel. We all had so much fun together- we caught up on life and talked about all sorts of random things. I crashed as soon as I got home because I had to be at the Estes Park golf course at *drum roll* 6 AM Thursday morning. WHOOOO!

               I’m pretty sure that this goes without saying, but I’m not really a morning person. The 6 AM start time just about killed me, but I got myself out of bed and arrived right on time. I helped Joanna check people in and then waited until I was needed for my official job of watching the $10,000 hole in one shot. The Y paid a company to offer prizes at certain holes if there’s a hole in one (someone ended up getting one and winning golf clubs, which was actually a tournament first, so that’s neat). The company surveys the course and picks one hole to offer $10,000 for a hole in one. Obviously that’s a large sum of money, so at least two witnesses need to be there throughout the tournament. I spent my whole time there with Jinetta and a board member. We all had a blast talking and watching all of the golfers. One got super close- the ball bounced near the hole (it might have even hit it a little) and went about one foot away!

               Once the tournament was over, we packed up our stuff and headed back to the office. There wasn’t much time to regroup- we had to be down at the cabin donor picnic around four- but I organized a few things before leaving. I got to check people into the picnic, which wasn’t hard at all. It was actually super fun talking to people I hadn’t met before (some of them were from KC, yay!) and saying hello to the familiar faces. I sat with Jinetta and a super cool family during the dinner, which ended up being a great decision. The family talked to me the whole time and we got to know each other pretty well. They were just fantastic and I loved meeting them.

               As soon as we pulled into the EXO parking lot after the picnic, I saw Erica, Jenna and Rachel sitting in Erica’s car, waiting for me. We decided to go in town for ice cream, but we made a stop by The Warming Hut to wait for Chandler to be done with work. On the way over, I asked Jenna what she wanted to do on Friday and her response was, “I know what I want to do, but I have to wait until we're all together to discuss it.” I was a little sketched out but went along with it. Once we were all together, I asked Erica and Rachel what they were thinking. Here’s the exact conversation:

               Me: I have all of Friday off, so what were you guys thinking of doing?

               Erica: You have the whole day off?

               Me: Yeah.

               Erica: That’s great! How do you feel about doing Longs that night?

               I’m pretty sure my face was hilarious because I definitely thought that they were joking. Then Rachel said, “I thought it was crazy too but hear them out!” and I suddenly had a decision to make. Long story short (no pun intended), I decided to climb it with my original group August. I really wanted to do it with them anyway, but we also found out that there’s still ice towards the top, which means that we would need equipment. I wouldn’t know how to use it even if I had it, so August it is. Hopefully it’ll clear up by then!

               Instead of our original (crazy) plan, Jenna and I hiked Milner Pass on Friday morning. It was gorgeous- we started down by the Continental Divide and went four miles up to the Alpine Visitor’s Center. The first mile was steep (you gain all 1,000+ feet of elevation right at the beginning), but after that it was smooth sailing. 

              Everything on that side of the park is stunning and we were able to enjoy it all since it was so flat. We made it to the Visitors Center and back in a little over three hours. It was a perfect short-ish hike! 

                That evening, we ended up spending seven hours at The Rock with another group of people. It was fun because we got dinner and hung out until about 10:00, when a band called Chain Station started playing. They’re Bluegrass, so it was all upbeat and fun. We listened to them, talked and even got on the dance floor for a bit. (Fun fact: trying to dance to bluegrass is extremely difficult.) I don’t think we left until 1:30 AM, so I was definitely thankful for sleeping in on Saturday. Our day was pretty laid back, too. A small group went into Moraine Park in the late morning. Jenna, Rachel and I finished off the day by going to see Jurassic World (SO GOOD), hanging out in town and then playing games in the admin building.

               On Sunday I had to say goodbye to Jenna, which was a major bummer. Rachel joined in on the drive to Denver, which was nice because we all got to spend a little more time together. We said our goodbyes and all agreed to stay in touch. I wish she could have stayed longer, but I was so happy to have had a week with her. I had to be back at the Y by six for a drive over to Snow Mountain Ranch, so Rachel and I explored Denver University’s campus (it was gorgeous) and got an early dinner at the first Chipotle (surprisingly small, not surprisingly delicious). 

Well played, recreational marijuana place. Well played.

              We drove back to the Y, where I hopped in another car to drive to Snow Mountain Ranch. It was a little hectic but I was happy to be leaving the night before our second golf outing versus leaving Estes Park at 6:30 or 7:00 on Monday morning. Bleh.

               Another great week down, two more wonderful weeks to go. This next week is going to be absolutely wonderful for two reasons. 1) I get to see one of my favorite bands at Red Rocks on Tuesday and 2) two of my best friends in the whole world are coming to visit for the weekend. !!!!!!