Saturday, September 7, 2024

Coffee Chat and Updates

 


What a first week of September this has been. With just 19 days until the kick off of this year's veteran hunt...I am kind of beside myself trying to finalize everything. It's been such a chaotic time, most of the year...September has snuck up on me. I have battled a lot of disappointments this year, with lack of communication, being a huge struggle. It's strange to me that others don't see the importance of it. 


Anyway, we have gotten some new shirts for our event this year. The entire order was a mess, but we'll deal with it. What was supposed to be a small run - meant to make sure everything printed as we wanted, for the veterans and volunteers...with a bigger order later in the month, and t-shirts in 2 colors...turned into the entire order at once, the graphic in the wrong place, and only a single color. Very disappointing and very costly for not being correct. The "answer" to fix it was a re-run, waiting for another two weeks, and having to pay for the cost of the shirts but not the printing...and keeping what we already had. Still not sure how that solution fixed the problem, but was going to cost even more. Whatever. I will make this work for now. So, we do have the shirts, they look really sharp, and I have lots of sizes from Medium thru 4XL. We got a few sweatshirts also. I will be setting up again this year, at the Villages of Van Buren, Scenic Drive Festival in the old school at Bonaparte, IA, during the gun show. The raffles and the shirts are fundraisers that allow us to continue hosting the veteran hunt every year. 


I have decided to make some changes to our veteran event, beginning next year. This year marks 6 years, that we have hosted this event...with very few changes. I strive to keep this hunt personable, relaxed and beneficial to the veterans. I will be keeping the number of veteran attendees to under 10, because once you go above that, it becomes too big to be managed efficiently by one person. We have struggled for a few years to get volunteers to help in the field - driving the veterans to the blinds, field dressing the deer, helping get veterans to and from the ponds for fishing. I will be reworking the donation/sponsorship/partnership options for 2025. I am hoping that 2025 will return some more acceptable level of costs; that we have battled with for 3 years now. I have a long list of notes to review for 2025, and I'm certain a lot more will be added before the end of September. October 1st, will begin the planning for the 2025 event. 


Allergies have taken ahold of my household this year. Every single one of us is battling them. After talking to several others, it seems allergies have become a real problem for a lot of people. When I woke up this morning, it was 43 degree!! I turned off the air and started opening windows. It is time for some fresh air. We aren't even supposed to break 70 today, so it's a great day for open windows and some deep cleaning. It seems we go from heat to air, then back to heat again...without much opportunity to open windows and allow some un-stagnant air in. It is so peaceful to hear the chickens and ducks instead of the noise from the air. 


Have a great weekend!

No comments:

Post a Comment