Aftermath of Rock the River

Since Rock the River was so intense.. both with ups and downs.. I'm going to do a bulleted list of memorable events from the 3ish days leading up to and after the event.

• trying to first wrap my head around the vast amount of volunteers that I need. I never stressed about it, but I had to plan for (at first) 2 types of volunteers: merchandise and access control (read: ushers and security). The last then morphed to include greeters, green team, parking lot and parkade attendants, kids events, lost/found people and Donor tent security. Three time slots, with an hour gap between the first two, and with anywhere from 20-30+ volunteers for each of the slots. I also then had to call all these people to confirm. Yes, all you people like staying away from your telephones at night! Or making sure you screen calls. I know, I know, who likes strangers phoning them at night? I needed roughly 150 slots filled. So if you asked me how I was doing around that time, I'd give a smile and blank stare.. 'fine!' Most people were concerned with salvations (which obviously is why we're doing this folks!) but I got to see the back-end (computer lingo) and all the man-hours that were being poured into this giant puzzle

• each night Rosalie would send me new people who had contacted her by email, telephone, or the online form. I'd plug those in or call to confirm. You better love the sound of your voice for this roll, because many people were hearing it over and over again :) (Thank you UMFM, you trained me well). Thanks to Rosalie, office admin extraordinaire. I'm sure her brain had to hold all the knowledge of five jobs combined at the same time and know every answer to every question asked.

• 2 days before the event we realized that one staff person was telling people to come to the Friday night briefing at Calvary Temple, and the other person was telling them to come to the Forks. I spent most of Friday calling all the volunteers to double check, again. Or emailing them all, again, and getting about half of those emails sent back due to problems with the email address.

• I thankfully/suddenly/sadly got the quick full-time task of organizing the band/musician airport runs. I loved this! It was only sad because the lady who usually does this got sick last minute, and couldn't come. BUT my friend Maryn came into town to help out since she had done the Edmonton and Calgary event last year!!! Yay! We hadn't seen each other since Britain 2009, but it was just the same!

• At first I thought I had to find 4 drivers (2 airport, 2 golf cart) for Saturday. Then it turned into 3 drivers for Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Thankfully I got to take off work for some of these and I found others that didn't have to work on Friday.

• Days before the events, these all happened: one of my drivers couldn't find their license, one of the musicians cancelled in requiring a driver, and one of the morning bands 3 flights were added to my list. So you know when I sent out panicked emails about finding drivers? Yes, I actually did need drivers! (Thanks to Jeremy, Harv and Bek who stepped up.)

• my little Wpg airport spreadsheet! I had carefully colour coded mapping out which driver would take which van, and how we all would pick up the vans, where they would live during the day and night, and how they would all get dropped off three days later. I also memorized which flight came in at what time, added a new iPhone app to track the flights, and gave each driver a highlighted spreadsheet according to their airport runs.

• Little did I know, that the morning events and the afternoon/evening events were operated very separately. In the big picture they were one and the same, but when trying to contact people for the 10am event, I found most were in the prayer/devotions at 9am. This did not work well! I had drivers and flights showing up in the morning that needed to get papers, credentials, or the people that were in that meeting! Instead we quickly scarfed coffee, banana bread, and Gaylene & Bek prayed for me.

• Merchandise volunteers: did you know that merch volunteers not only are very possessive of their roles and take it very seriously, but they also only want to do merchandise, and nothing else. No to access control, no to greeting, and no to even taking the shift off. They wanted their merch roles! Thankfully, most volunteer problems were solved but I was still trying to balance 100+ volunteers, 3 drivers + 3 vans, and 3 days of flights.

•Janessa! My 'other half' of my brain. Since I was doing double duty, Janessa was able to either be me and/or support me in the various responsibilities that being Volunteer Coordinator involved. At one point she was running down the hill to meet me and I was running up. We met half way and both collapsed at the same time and laughed. Both of us were exhausted and I think only half the day was over. I hope we do get to remain friends!

• Peter and Paul to the rescue! Once again, the day before the event, I met Peter and Paul (and am I Mary?). They were in charge of security and were definitely my go-to-guys for everything security related. I got to wear a headset (no TFK I am not Brittany) attached to the walkie-talkie, and although it took awhile, I finally managed to balance the voices in my head and the texts and calls on my own phone. We had the most interesting things happen: someone was selling chocolate bars, another was giving away (local band) cds, new spots were created for access control volunteers (not to be confused with all access.. VERY DIFFERENT!)… and over and over I heard.. 'What's your position.. ok I'm coming'. I'd definitely work with these guys again.

• Vans! Since I love trucks and sports cars (and motorcycles), vans usually do not fall into the category of love. However, without these large people-carriers, I could not have loaded and unloaded all the people, luggage, merch, and gear that we did. The joyous scene of Harv driving up with the band in black (not the Letter Black, but TFK) was wonderful! Just as joyous was our early morning airport run the next day and bumping into Paul. Thanks to my drivers again! Such a huge huge part of the day! Without you, no one would have been there :)

• Police escort! (and I thought this was for the mayor!) Yes indeed, Franklin had a police escort. Last time we did this at the arena (MTS Centre), it was full on with the police bomb dogs and every other vehicle that beeped or chirped. Since the Forks really can't do this since its an outside venue, Franklin had the police escort him in as well as many of his security. However if you passed him in the hotel, it would all seem quite regular (as I did numerous times).

• Temperature and weather. I knew many people were praying for no rain and true enough, it didn't start spitting until the fireworks were ending in the sky.However I could not have comprehend how cold (AND WINDY) it would be. I had an undershirt, my red RTR shirt, sweater, Black Bench jacket (Ty-"what's with the holes in  your sleeves?"), down filled vest, jeans (just jeans? what was I thinking?), my Converse (whose insoles made my feet get blisters.. thank you Paramedics for providing rockin' bandaids), gloves, and my sparkly purple hat (from Savoire Fair). Next time, I'm praying for more heat!

• Karen and Rose from Ugly Duckling Productions… they took this event and ran with it. I don't think it could have been close to a 'success' without these two. They knew every answer to every question that was asked. I'm sure every chair I sat on, or tent I sat under… every 'washroom' I saw, or trash can I walked by, somehow these ladies sourced it out. They were always kind and always had a smile on their faces even with the multiple walkie-talkies in front of them. I'm sure they could have walked the Forks blindfolded and come out winners! http://www.uglyducklingproductions.com/quackers.htm

• Maryn! I've known Maryn for a very long time. But this was only our third time face to face. We first met on a Starfield message board, I think I was the admin, and she was the very knowledgeable and hospitable fan in Calgary. We kept in touch on myspace and then on Facebook. We discovered our mutual love of Brit Boy Bands and in 2009, when she was studying in Manchester, I went for a visit! Now two years later (so long!) she came back to help run the band side of the event. Her, Tom and JW ran the show and moved the musicians flawlessly. From needing to move gear and guitars, dealing with dead golf carts and gators, or just helping me get food.. we were texting and calling each other all the time. It's the dream team!

• Speaking of eating, thanks to Beki and Gaylene. They were my other assistants who would literally run to get me anything anywhere. They kept me fed, prayed for me, reminded me to go to the bathroom, kept my gloves, charged my phone, helped my musicians find everything in Winnipeg and usually could read my mind :) What great friends!

• Starboys.. they were the first band I had on Righteous Radio in 1999. They had just started as a band and in the many years that followed, I helped them design merch, sell merch, update websites and message boards, worked with their mom and sister, host/run many shows with them, and brought them in to do fundraisers. So I found it hilarious that my first pick up was Tim.. he found it funny as well, since the first words out of my mouth were.. 'Yes Tim, I'm officially here to pick you up for Rock the River'. We even met a past friend who went to the same church, was on tour with them, and now was blowing through Winnipeg to see his family. It was so nice to catch up with the guys and their parents.. the guys had wives and babies now! Until we meet again!

• TFK… ahhh, my boys. Although I had officially known Starfield the longest, TFK are still affectionately known as my boys. I first met them in 2001 in Selkirk in some random show a local promotions guy was putting on with Newsboys and Jake. At that time, they had a van and brought Daniel (bassist for Hawk Nelson) along as a merch guy. In the 10 years that followed I have driven, visited, hosted, photographed and ate with them each year. I can remember each new guitarist (Dave, Mike, Jamie, Nick and now Ty), first time I met Clay (in the elevator at YCAlberta 2007) and every time they come to town it always feels like band family has arrived. I told my drivers they will be all in black (maybe with some grey, maybe), look like rock stars, and have a really dry sense of humor. Sure enough my drivers used no signs and found them right away. They said.. 'Where's Alyssa?' :) In the following 24 hours, we ate together (Big D:you need to find the guys and eat.. GO! Ty/JoeL: you look like Britany with that thing on your head (my headset), Ty: whats with those things on your hands? (my Bench jacket with the thumb holes.. WHICH Big D had on days later).. and the usual amount of teasing that they heap upon me. Thanks to Trev, Steve, Clay, Ty, Big D and JoeL (my fave!) for keeping me laughing! (and thanks to Clay and Big D days later for being the unofficial big brothers.. literally!)

• my headset.. oh beloved! When I first got you I was all excited! It took me awhile to get used to you squeezing my head, and how to position your mouthpiece just right so that people could actually hear me instead of static. I'd try to hug people and (whamp!) you'd get stuck between, I'd try to drink water or eat and (pfffftttt!!!) your mouthpiece would get in the way. In sudden moments, I'd hear far off voices, sometimes in crazier ones, I'd hear the crowd try to attack the security and/or stage through you. But at the end of the night, after I was warm and safe in my bed, I could still feel you attached to my head.. sigh.

• the RTR team.. Dion, Dave, David, David, Dan, Jess, Rosalie, Janessa, Peter, Paul… the list goes on and on from the RTR crew! Without this weekend, I would never have met you and spent the most craziest times together. I guess it is true, you bond in the craziest, adrenalin-filled times!

• Norm Z from Gateway.. Norm! You got me into this :) And I'm so thankful! On the Friday before RTR, I saw Norm at Calvary Temple for the Counsellor training.. I walked over with massive spreadsheet in hand.. and he laughed. On Saturday, with headset and cell phone attached, I found him… again much laughter followed.

• Kyle! It's always good to have a buddy who is with you from the start. And Kyle was! We still need to catch up and debrief. Instead of partner in crime.. It's DJ in crime so to speak!

• Follow up. Seriously, I have to call more people? Again? Wait.. different people.. about 326 of them.. and they are all the baby christians (affectionately known as). What a joy and privilege it was to call and ask them how they were doing, what the next days/weeks were like and if I could pray for them. Mostly all of them opened up and I got a little window into their lives and how Jesus was healing them back on the road to recovery and a new life.

Thank you each and everyone who prayed for me. Thank you to my SHOP church family, for everyone who checked in on me and usually waved as I ran by. Not only did my body hold up but so did my voice! In the 8am-10:30pm day, I got to sit down about twice to eat, and I walked/ran everywhere else. Usually for a crazy hectic weekend like this, either I start to fight a cold or my voice goes.. or else one of the musicians gets sick and can't sign. Thankfully, everyone stayed well and healthy!

Thanks to Jesus for it all coming together. Once again I'm reminded how I take my life and salvation for granted sometimes. You give me a hope when it's hopeless, a love when its empty, and a reason to keep waking up each morning. Love. Faith. and Hope.