Senior Out Reach

I spent half of the day yesterday, out of the office at an information fair: one of those gala events where one sits behind a table and hands out trinkets, cards and other forms of literature in an effort to get more recognition for my office—it’s also called “outreach”. I need to do more info fairs then I am, but do to the economic downturn I have not had the capital to restock my pieces of information as well as get a volunteer or something to cover my phones while I am away doing the fair. Like everything else some information fairs are better then others and I should be more discriminating of the information fairs I attend.

Earlier in the Summer got a call and a letter notifying me of yesterday’s event. An information fair from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Liberty Senior Center, and this is a case in point. Senior center information fairs are somewhat questionable as far as value for time spent. But sometime the Senior fair has good lunch options. Usually, the center or agency which offers the Fair usually has a lunch or dinner or snacks of such a high caliber the vendor is enticed to attend. Not so yesterday. There was a lunch offered—the same lunch which was being offered to the seniors—which is OK but they expected the vendors to pay for the meal, again, which is OK—and at $3.00 this is a deal of a meal but the operation was very unorganized. I know I stood in line (sat) for five minutes and could not get anyone of the staff to take my order so I packed it in ad zipped up the street to a Taco Time, a couple of blocks away.

You can never tell with a senior function sometimes a senior function is sweet and rewarding and other times a senior function can be hell—yesterday the function was some where in between. I was accosted by more the one senior by, “OK-what are YOU going to try and sell me?!”or “ what do you do and why do I need to know about what you do?” . One of the item I had on the table o give away were pins which read, FEEL THE POWER OF THE DISABILITY VOTE. A senior would shuffle up to the table stare at the pin and squint, point at the pin and whisper, “What does that mean? Disability vote” ? Like it was some sort of porn. Then after five minutes or so of explanation then the coot shakes his head mumbles something about world war II , grabs a couple of pencils and shuffles away.

The event was supposed to go till three but by 2:00 there had not been any new people enter the building since before lunch was served and all the other vendors breaking down their exhibits and leaving so I did the same. I was glad to the event behind me and back to the office and start returning calls. I have been thinking though or haunted by the thought—maybe the reason I am so apathetic to the whole experience is…I m really close to becoming one of them!!!