New Orleans Charity Event: By the Numbers

O.K. So I am in New Orleans for work this week. And this is a different kind of program.

Although it is a national conference for a client, they have taken on this enormous charity project where, by the end of the week, all 10,000 attendees will each have done 5 hours of community service here....painting flood damaged houses, landscaping yards and clearing and building neighborhood parks. It really is an undertaking. And something that I hope other companies start doing also. I love when they combine charity work into their meetings.

Well, our job here is logistical. Some duties: lunches, water, and snacks for staff. Busing everyone to the work sites. Organizing the police to close the streets where we are working. Organizing tool deliveries and portapotties. Basically all aspects that need to be done to allow the volunteers to just show up and work.

The main reason I am talking about this is that we just finished day 2 of the event. And I have to admit....a lot of strange things have happen. Now, my job as an event planner has always been to put out fires, and deal with the unexpected, but the last couple days have surprised even me.

The American Airlines Magazine does this cool thing where they share trivia facts by giving you numbers, and then explaining them. I thought that would be a fun way to describe some of the happenings on this New Orleans charity project so far. Some are hilarious, some are scary, and some are just plain weird.

And remember...this is just in the first 2 days. I have 3 more days of this......Enjoy!



Number of Hotels in New Orleans required for the Conference: 32


Number of Hotel that have had a fire in them in the last 2 day: 2


Number of feet between police officers in the Gentilly Area work event: 25


Number of total police officers it took to close the streets around that 9 block area: over 50


Number of people mugged while working in that same very patrolled area: 2


Number of times I went the wrong way on a one way street to get to my assigned location in the rental car: 3


Number of those times that ended with me swerving up on someone's lawn and getting stuck there to avoid being hit: 1


Number of portapotties required for this event placed various spots around the city: 150


Number of those I had to clean myself because someone doesn't understand the concept of using the hole, and not the surrounding rim of the toilet when using the porta, and the people we pay to service them would not be there for another 45 min, and I had a line of people to use it: 1


The "Number" I had to clean up in aforementioned portapotty: 2


Number of times I used the phrase "My job really sucks right now" while cleaning that portapotty: 20


Number of EMT Vehicles on standby daily for the event: 5


Number on EMT calls so far in the first 2 days: 14


Number of those calls that involved someone freaking out after being bit by a caterpillar, and insisting we get the bite checked out: 1


Number of grown men riding by on a bike with colorful ribbons coming out the handlebars, a 22 oz can of beer in the water bottle holder on the bike, and a full grill of gold teeth that asked if he could have one of the boxed lunches we were distributing for the volunteers: 1


Number of times that same man had to trade in his box lunch for another because he didn't like the sandwich flavor: 3 (he rejected chicken; vegetarian, and roast beef - ended up with turkey)


Number of people said bike rider came back with 30 minutes later to ask if they could have lunches also: 4 ( we gave them lunches too...and they did not dispute sandwich type)


Number of volunteers that completely ignored me when I personally asked them to not enter the abandoned house, next door to the one we were working in, that looked sketchy (she said she just wanted to take pictures): 1


Number of volunteers that fell through the withered wood floor of a house they were not supposed to be in, and broke their ankle, 5 minutes later: 1 (Coincidence??? I think not.....)



And the best one so far......

Number of dead bodies found in the work sites: 1

(FYI: A lady died of a heart attack while putting out the garbage. A trash man found her the next morning just as our buses were dropping the volunteers off at the house next door.)



You can't make this crap up.


I am going to add to this list after the program is over.....stay tuned!