Fun In Parsippany - The Parsippany Fall Festival
Yesterday was the Parsippany Fall Festival, an annual event where the township shuts North Beverwyck Road down from Vail to Knoll Roads and there are street vendors, foods, rides and other fun activities there. This is usually the last or next to last Sunday in September and I have found that as an EMT I really enjoy going to this little festival. For one thing, it is time well spent doing something for the squad and a chance to spend a day with different people. For another thing, it gets all but the tiniest amount of my Finance hours done for the year and leaves me with maybe one more hour to put in. Since I also like to be around for EMS week to do whatever the squad does to make the township aware of our services, that finishes my Finance hours. This leaves me with House hours, and I make most of the clean up dates for the squad, so I have all my time put in to vote.
This year we did the usual selling soda, iced tea and water, and made a goodly amount of money; we did the usual free blood pressure screenings and as something new (and dramatically overdone by all the
others there) we had donation jars out for Hurricane Katrina survivors. However, what separated us from everyone else was that our money was going toward getting our ambulance (66-1) down to the Gulf Coast. I even stood out in the middle of the street, screaming at the top of my lungs, "PLEASE HELP US GET OUR AMBULANCE DOWN TO THE GULF COAST!" I had some donations come in - one person even put in a $10 bill! Yay!
After a while the yelling in the middle of the road got really old (and my throat really hoarse) so I brought the bottle back to the table, did some more soda passing duties, then took another trip around the various other tables that were set up. I had a free massage (sigh...), bought a couple of bottles of the most amazing honey teriyake sauce, got myself a gorgeous autumn wreath, and finally a Parsippany sweatshirt. I love the fall festival.
I did more stuff there, some free blood pressure readings, more passing out sodas, and then I sat down in one of my chairs and between low blood sugar, the heat and not doing anything I fell asleep in the chair. I think someone took a picture of me - Bob said something about there being photographic evidence of my napp
ing. Around 1645 I woke up and at 1648 we got our first call of the day. We went down to the call - a bit of strange thing, that - and the person signed off. A total waste of our time but that is fairly typical, sad to say. We went back and were delighted to see that the whole thing had been packed up and we were ready to go! Cool. We processed back to the squadhouse and I came home.
And so another Fall Festival has gone by.
This year we did the usual selling soda, iced tea and water, and made a goodly amount of money; we did the usual free blood pressure screenings and as something new (and dramatically overdone by all the
others there) we had donation jars out for Hurricane Katrina survivors. However, what separated us from everyone else was that our money was going toward getting our ambulance (66-1) down to the Gulf Coast. I even stood out in the middle of the street, screaming at the top of my lungs, "PLEASE HELP US GET OUR AMBULANCE DOWN TO THE GULF COAST!" I had some donations come in - one person even put in a $10 bill! Yay!After a while the yelling in the middle of the road got really old (and my throat really hoarse) so I brought the bottle back to the table, did some more soda passing duties, then took another trip around the various other tables that were set up. I had a free massage (sigh...), bought a couple of bottles of the most amazing honey teriyake sauce, got myself a gorgeous autumn wreath, and finally a Parsippany sweatshirt. I love the fall festival.
I did more stuff there, some free blood pressure readings, more passing out sodas, and then I sat down in one of my chairs and between low blood sugar, the heat and not doing anything I fell asleep in the chair. I think someone took a picture of me - Bob said something about there being photographic evidence of my napp
ing. Around 1645 I woke up and at 1648 we got our first call of the day. We went down to the call - a bit of strange thing, that - and the person signed off. A total waste of our time but that is fairly typical, sad to say. We went back and were delighted to see that the whole thing had been packed up and we were ready to go! Cool. We processed back to the squadhouse and I came home.And so another Fall Festival has gone by.
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