Location: UIC Forum
Date: Saturday, May 18, 2013; 4:30 pm-12:30 am
To say that I was looking forward
to this would be an understatement. Not
only would I get to witness Make-A-Wish Foundations impact, I was also going to
have an opportunity to wear my new Black suit and tie, specially ordered for
this evening! In fact, I was leveraging
the suit to get additional responsibilities during the event and it
worked. Julie wrote to me a couple of
days prior that she had an additional role of me and on the morning of, she
informed that I would be participating in a Skit that evening – ‘Adventures of Beetle Boy’ - , playing a
Security guard who escorts the villain off-stage. Besides the suit she asked me to get my dark
sunglasses to truly appear ‘official’ and important. From a coat-check guy to being in the skit,
the suit had paid off already!
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| The room was magically transformed |
I arrived at UIC and went up to
the Volunteer break room to check-in. I
saw Michelle there and we discussed what to expect this evening. I spotted Julie and she took me to meet
Jessica, who would be explaining my role in the skit. I was asked to report to the stage area
around 7:30 pm, just when the skit was about to begin. Towards the end the ‘Beetle Boy’ would defeat the bad guy and would be carried off on
top of the shoulders of his fans. This
would leave the villain on stage, and me and another volunteer would don our
glasses, walk up to the villain and taking an arm each, lead him off. Sounded simple enough and all I had to do were
ensure that I did not trip. That would
not look cool at all.
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| The attention to detail was spectacular |
One of the most impressive sights
of the evening was seeing the place being magically transformed into a grand
ballroom – a far cry from the empty court of the previous week. They had done an outstanding job of
decorating the place and every attention to detail was fabulous, including the
lovely glass centerpieces and even the chairs looked fantastic. All the splendor was truly befitting the occasion. Since there
was plenty of time before my first task, I could mingle and help out as
required. There were 6 ‘Wish Kids’ who had been invited for the
ball and each of them were paired with one ‘Wish
Ambassador’. As soon as the kid came
in with their family, the ambassador was supposed to put a ‘superhero cape’ on
them – consistent with the theme of the evening – and then they were to be
together for the initial part of the evening, trying to sell raffle tickets to
raise money. One of the kids was
collecting his share of raffle tickets and he had a big smile on his face. I joked with him that perhaps looking a bit
sad that no one was buying from him would be a better strategy – something that
he agreed with wholeheartedly!
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| Silent auction goodies |
Michelle and another volunteer,
Stephanie, were stationed at the Silent Auction table and since I had time, I
joined them to help out. Our job was to
answer any questions that the bidders may have, specifically regarding the
bidding process. Everything was quite
sophisticated, with bidding process through your smart phone, or in absence of
one, an iPod touch had been provided
to the guests. Even I as a volunteer was allowed to bid and had been given my
own bidder number. I was using that as
an example to show people the process and how to track the current bid on an
item that they were interested in. All
this time, my constant fear was clicking the bid button by mistake, which would
put my hat in a very expensive ring.
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| The people were ready for a grand evening |
The space available to display
the goods was limited and one of the artists wasn’t too happy in the way their
piece was positioned. I tried to help
Stephanie re-position it and despite our best efforts, the person was still
dissatisfied. But this was a rarity, for
most of the people we spoke with were extremely friendly. I discussed the benefits of bidding on an iPad vs. iPad mini with one gentleman, who wanted to get it for his
daughter. There was a big box of ‘Vosges Haut’ chocolates and I told him to bid on that instead. He said that he may, though his daughter was
into health food. I said that I do not know many kids that would say
no to chocolate, health conscious or otherwise!
I met a lady, Karen, who wanted to bid on ‘Martin Short Show’ in St. Charles.
I had no idea where the place was and saw that it was close to St.
Louis, where she was visiting for a baseball game. While I showed her how to track the bids, I
realized that besides baseball, she and her husband loved travelling. This led to us having a long conversation
about the ‘Red Sox’ and ‘Fenway Park’ and travelling in New
England in places such as ‘Acadia
National Park’ and ‘Bar Harbor’
and the other New England experiences such as ‘Kancamagus Highway’ and Newport beach. We kept checking her bid and till the time I
had to leave for my skit, she was in the lead.
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| Their dessert course |
I went to the stage and met Matt,
my fellow security guard in the skit. ‘CircEsteem’, whose show I had seen on a
One Brick project, was performing and they were also a part of the skit. Matt and I discussed who would take which arm
of the bad guy and as we waited for our cue, I learned that Matt’s brother had
been a ‘Wish Kid’ and thus Matt had
joined as a ‘Wish Granter’. Soon the ‘Beatle
Boy’ defeated the villain and was carried off stage by his fans. Matt and I wore our glasses, stuck up our most
official pose and walked on to the stage.
I had not performed on stage in front of a crowd since I was 7 and while
this wasn’t exactly Brando as ‘Terry
Malloy’, I thought that I did a decent job of escorting the bad guy
off-stage. Once on the other side, I
gave him a high-five and since our job there was done, Matt and I could head
back. Well, the problem was that we
could either go through the dining area where the guests were, or through the kitchen
where food was in the final stages of its preparation for the dinner
service. We chose the latter and so we
trekked through a long corridor of trays and at one point I saw a line of
desserts and as is usually the case with me, I had to stop for a picture!
While the guests were being
treated to the spread I had seen, our dinner was up in the volunteer break room
and comprised of either pizza or sandwiches.
After a quick bite to eat, I came down with Michelle and we took a few
pictures together in the grand ballroom.
In the meanwhile the evening’s agenda was moving forward and next was
the thing that I most wanted to see – a ‘Mission
Speech’ by a ‘Wish Family’ and at
the end of which we all were certain of our commitment to this
organization. A couple, Melinda and
Mike, talked about their son, Alex’s wish which was, “I wish to meet Steve Carell and visit the set at the Office.”
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| A standing ovation |
Alex was a big fan of the show
and specifically of Steve Carell’s ‘Michael
Scott’ character. Despite being diagnosed with cancer, he did not lose his spirit and through all the treatments, kept following the show. When MAW approved Alex as a‘Wish
kid’, he had no hesitation in selecting this wish. MAW informed Steve Carell and he was more
than enthusiastic above having Alex and the family visit. They tried scheduling but due to Alex’s
treatment and other issues, the visit kept getting pushed back. Eventually Alex got too weak and lost his
battle. Steve and his wife Nancy had
become close to Melinda and were devastated on hearing this news. Usually MAW’s role is over when something
like this happens, but no one was willing to let go, especially Steve and
Nancy. They flew out the rest of the
family, including Alex’s brother and friends out to the set and treated them to
an experience just as if Alex would have been there. Since then Steve and Nancy have stayed in
touch with Melinda and tonight, to everyone’s surprise, we saw a personal video
message from Steve and Nancy for everyone in the room, complete with them
wearing the MAW superhero shirts, based on tonight’s theme. Melinda is now a ‘Wish Granter’ herself and as she and Mike finished their story,
there was a long standing ovation which I suspect for not just for them, but
Steve and Nancy, and Alex, and Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the people in the
room – guests and volunteers alike. All
of us were in this together.
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| This is what I was guarding |
It was time for me to perform my
original duty as a coat-check person and I went outside to relieve the earlier
attendant. She told me that we had a
grand total of 3 coats and 1 bag, but that still meant that someone had to pay
attention. I had joked with Julie that
for next year’s Ball I wanted to be a ‘Wish
Ambassador’ and that I would send her an email every day till I got that
post. As I sat in the chair outside the
coat closet, I sent her the first of those emails, saying let’s see if anyone
can beat that! Nobody was leaving yet,
so I could wander into the ballroom and see what was going on. Martin Short, who was the celebrity guest and
who was going to have a performance later on, had come out to help with the
live auction. He was working the room,
walking through the crow, trying to get people to bid higher and it looked like
he was succeeding. While this was all
good, my attention was diverted to something at the back of the room. Walking closer I saw that it was exactly what
I had suspected – a dessert station! I
must admit I have a huge affinity for desserts and could have stayed there all
evening, but my duty was by the coat-check.
I went back to wait and seeing that I was already there, Julie put me in
charge of collecting the ‘bid devices’, the iPod
Touch that had been given to people who had chosen not to use their smart
phone to bid. I mean, these guys had
paid a great deal of money to be here, so it was unlikely that they did not
have a smart phone. So I stood there
waving the device to people who were leaving and pointing to the bin where they
were to deposit it. The funny thing was
that some people thought that I had found a lost smart phone and was waving it
to get their attention and so it became a common sight for everyone to check
their pockets to see if they still had theirs. Folks had also been given
wristbands with LEDs to signify that they had made a pledge or bought a raffle
ticket and they were allowed to keep those.
However it did not prevent some folks from asking me if they were
allowed to leave with those fancy looking bands and I responded we will know if
it doesn't buzz once you get outside – like a dog collar!
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| It had been a privilege |
The evening festivities were
almost over and so was my time at the coat-check station. I went to the back room to see Michelle,
Stephanie and others wrap-up their post-auction duties and we took some more
pictures. Then it was time to go back
and party since the bar was open and the DJ was in attendance. The party was indeed in full swing, though I
was exhausted. It was past midnight and I
had been up since pre-dawn to go to Soldier Field very early – a place I would be
visiting again in a few short hours. I
told Julie that I was leaving and thanked her for letting me be a part of this
evening. ‘Wish Ball 2013’ had lived up to be everything that I thought it
would be. It had been a privilege to be
invited and work with great volunteers, be a part of a skit and more
importantly listen to Mike and Melinda’s speech. It would have been okay even if all I had
done was sit by the coat-check room, but to experience this evening was just
amazing. I had started by telling Julie
that I wanted to get maximum mileage off my suit. Based on everything, it felt as if I had been
to the moon and back.
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