Some Thoughts on TribeFest 2014, Part II: Service Project Opportunity
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Plants were planted and covered with mulch at one of the service projects at TribeFest 2014 -
Plants potted with mulch
{Previously: Part I: Main Stage & App}
Plants potted with mulch
As had transpired at the first two TribeFests, there was a service project opportunity at TribeFest 2014. Now, this was not something in which everybody necessarily participated (in fact, I know people who used that time to do work or take meetings, etc.), but was an opportunity afforded to us as a nice way of helping out the local community. Of course, taking place on Monday morning, it was also a great time to sleep in!
I, however, felt obliged to take part in a service project, choosing the [most] physical option, beautifying New Orleans City Park, which I enjoyed. It was nice, as Maya Avshalomov pointed out to me, that we got to pick our service projects at this TribeFest, in contrast to only having one option at TribeFest 2012. I definitely agreed, thinking that it was nice to have five options from which we got to choose ahead of time, as opposed to doing something that we may not have enjoyed as much. The other four options were working with the elderly at Kingsley House, packing food at the Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans and Arcadiana, reading with students at ReNEW Schools, and helping out at Arc of Greater New Orleans.
Plants were planted and covered with mulch at one of the service projects at TribeFest 2014
One thing, however, that I did not like in the scheduling of the service projects was an early wake-up. This issue also occurred with the previous TribeFest’s service project, being early. Yes, I understand that – from start to finish – TribeFest lasts only 45 hours, and that includes time for sleep(!), so to squeeze a service project, we need to wake up early to get going on it. However, what made it worse was that it was the morning after Purim. In New Orleans. At TribeFest. St. Patrick’s Weekend. Who’s going to bed early?
I am not sure why TribeFest had anything begin before 11am that morning, but there we were early, ready to board the buses. It might not have been too terrible, though, to get going, except…we had to wait about an hour to board the buses, which was very frustrating. We were assembled by 7:45am that morning, ready to get going and had to wait until past 8:30am to board the buses. While I am hoping that was an issue in simply the execution of getting the buses there and not a planning issue, it was annoying.
Overall, though, I’m glad there were options for service project opportunities this year and it was nice to help out New Orleans.
