Volunteering (8)

This afternoon I spent a few hours with nine other wilderness rangers working in the Big Sur International Marathon (BSIM) warehouse moving stuff around—out of trucks and into the warehouse, stacking the stuff on pallets, and watching Christian move it all, with his forklift, up onto shelves. 

The BSIM had its annual half-marathon this morning, so we were putting things back in place, where it will all sit waiting for next April's full marathon (and associated events: a 21-mile power walk, a 26-mile relay, a 5K run, and various walks). The stuff included many, many boxes of shirts (which you would't think would have a shelf life, would you? aren't they dated?), many, many boxes of plastic cups, traffic cones, stanchions, various sorts of signage, medal racks, bleachers—and more. Turns out, mounting a big race (the marathon proper attracts 4,500 participants) requires a lot of stuff. Here are some photos I took in the warehouse.

That's Christian in his forklift. He was delightful to watch.

The reason we helped out is that the BSIM gave us wilderness rangers a grant of $5,000. This was payback—or was it paying forward? In any case, it was a small example of community working together.