A mile in anothers shoes.

2008-12-21 00:18:13.000 – Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist

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When I was in grade school, our class taped out thumbs to our hand to experience what Jonny Tremain (from the book of the same name) had to go through on a daily basis. It impacted everything we did from turning a door knob to writing our names. It was something simple and artificial but it brought us a relation to the character. It showed how much we take for granted in our lives and brought a respect for others that have to learn to adapt to their environment. For that moment, we were living the phrase “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes to know what they are truly going through.”

Today, the summit staff and I walked a mile in a volunteers shoes and experienced what they have to do for an edutrip/hiking trip. And let me tell ya, I was humbled and now have a new found respect for what our volunteers do for us on a daily basis. As I mentioned in Fridays comment, we are down a few people this week, one of them being our volunteer. With our crew of three, it was no problem preparing meals. But when that number ballooned to 14, it took some work and a lot of planning to make things go smoothly. Between yesterday and today, I have spent close to 12 hours preparing the downstairs and food for our guests with a few more hours to go for their breakfast and cleaning after they depart. Essentially, I have been acting as a volunteer so instead of my clothes being covered by rime ice, I am covered in flour and other bits.

For our guests, I made over 100 homemade oatmeal raising cookies, half of which are gone. I made hors devours that were made up of sliced ham and turkey along with various cheeses, along with macaroni salad, olives, pickles, cheese and crackers along with vegetables and onion dip. For dinner, we had a ham with homemade glaze sauce, homemade mashed potatoes, peas, corn, broccoli, and biscuits. And for desert, Christmas cake with homemade frosting. And still to do: breakfast with coffee, eggs, toast, bacon, and potatoes.

It has been hours of slicing, dicing, and creating a spreadsheet of when things needed to start cooking/baking to aim for the end time of 5 pm for hors devours, 7 pm for dinner, and 7 am for breakfast. Mix this in with finding time to prepare the downstairs beds and cleaning the quarters and keeping up with all the dishes. It has been none stop so far with the exception of tonight where I get a brief break before preparing breakfast. And to think that our volunteers do this every week, I am truly at a lost of words to express my new found respect. If you have volunteered for us before, let me just say once again: “THANK YOU.”

I can’t say it enough. Thank you for the time you spend putting away the groceries on Wednesday. Thank you for cleaning, organizing and doing inventory of our freezers, fridges and pantry. Thank you for cooking us our meals and having them ready by 7 pm. Thank you for the delicious cookies, cakes and brownies you make. Thank you for doing the dishes. Thank you for cleaning our bathroom. Thank you for keeping our living room tidy. Thank you for making up the bunk rooms for our guests. Thank you for the preparation you do for our Edutrips/hiking trips. Thank you for the conversations and company. And most importantly, thank you for being a member and taking the time to volunteer for a week for us to allow me and everyone else up here to do what we need to do on a daily basis. We couldn’t do this without you. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist