On Saturday I was given this T
shirt for volunteering at the
POWER TO THE PEACEFUL festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. My
job was to pass out fliers advertising the post festival party ($20 to
get in) and the post festival film festival. You can find out more
about those by visiting their website
(click here). I picked the unofficial entrance at the end of
the short cut through the bushes as my duty station. Usually people
going that way are dodging the entrance fee, but it was a free event.
As people came out I would give them their card and tell them about the
donation cans by the main entrance. The front (shown above is the
back) side of the shirt had "ASK ME" on it in huge letters.
I had this card on a string
around my neck. It's funny how simple it is, but the schedule and the
map were enough to
answer just about every question anybody had. Printing and laminating a
few dozen of these was probably a much better investment than trying to
make programs for everybody.
To get this one
I just had to sell bottles of water and soda for $2 each for about
three hours. I'm sure all of those companies in the fine print had to
pay good money to get their names on my back. I can't remember
another time when I was given two T shirts with orange in the art in
the same
weekend. Actually, I can't remember another weekend I got two shirts
for volunteering in the same weekend.
Both shirts seem
well made. Both groups treated their volunteers well enough.
Unfortunately, it saddens me to report that the PTTP shirt was probably
made with slave labor, judging by the news from Haiti I've been exposed
to. At least the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce
got one made inside the NAFTA free trade region, whatever that's worth.
The Chamber shirt also claims to be "pre shrunk", so it will probably
fit a bit better than the other one in a few washings. The orange one
has MUCH BETTER ART, if you ignore those little details.
The PTTP event
itself was much more of a holistic grass roots experience. There were
many "grass roots vendors", selling everything from home made
vegetarian sandwiches to ganja brownies out of their backpacks and
baskets. There was none of that kind of thing at the Art & Wine
festival. Pure and simple, that one was all about raising money to keep
the Chamber of Commerce afloat. No bones about it. Rent for a booth at
that probably cost $900.