Last week, Melody of Will Run for Margaritas put out a call on facebook looking for volunteers to work at Brooks Cavalcade of Curiosities. Since I wanted to go over to the expo anyways, I offered to help. Since I have kids in school, I ended up working Thursday and Friday during the day.
While helping out at the expo was awesome, the chance to see both Melody and Miss Zippy was even better.
I was assigned to the giveaway booth both days. We scanned tickets that each person brought in and gave them either a bandana, a beanie or a t-shirt. Every once in a while someone won a new pair of Brooks shoes! (When that happened, I think the volunteers were as excited as the winner LOL.) A few times over the two days, people won head to toe Brooks outfits, but that didn’t happen while I was there.
Every hour on the hour, this guy came out and drew tickets to give away two pairs of shoes. He was amazing. I think I saw him 6 times while I was there and he was always high energy and totally into it. He certainly knew how to work the crowd!
After my work hours, I had a little time to wander the expo. I sampled some yummy treats, talked to the Garmin reps about my ailing 305, and bought myself an ifitness armband (review coming soon). All in all, I had a blast!
Things I learned at the expo:
- 95% of the people who get free stuff will be thrilled with anything you give them
- 5% of the people will be rude
- little kids wearing running beanies and/or “running freak” stickers are the cutest thing EVER
- runners are really friendly people
- there are some amazing stories out there (one of the women who won shoes had lost 50 pounds and really needed new shoes to help her lose another 50)
- if I didn’t have kids, I’d love to work for a company like Brooks and travel around to Expos each weekend. Maybe someday…
If you ever get a chance to work an expo, take it!
I like the one about runners being friendly people!
It was great to see you again and so much fun to work an expo! I decided that a full day of that would have been exhausting, don’t you think? And I am very excited to go to my next fair b/c I’m pretty sure I can rock skee ball now.
Sounds like it was a lot of fun. I read Miss Zippy’s post on it too. I love getting free stuff and am amazed some people would be rude about it! Crazy!
Brooks is a sponsor at the Akron Marathon. They should have this booth at our expo! Sounds like a fun time. Cheers!
I think working at that Expo would be so much fun. I to love free stuff. I would just love meeting all the runners and hearing their stories.
I loved the Brooks CoC booth at Seattle RnR last year. Very cool that you got to help out! Sounds like a fun day.
What a great opportunity! I love that you got to hang out with Miss Zippy, too. Bummer that even 5% were rude, but I guess that’s not a bad statistic. I love the vibe at Expos, I’ve never volunteered at one, but sounds like a blast.
Runners are friendly. I think it’s cause we all know that we have something in common and that helps to break the ice but it’s something I’ve seen time and time again.
It sounds like you had a really fun time helping out.
I have it on record that Miss Zippy cheats in Skee ball!