Christmas in the Park

What is Christmas in the Park?

Excerpt from the City of College Station website:

"The City of College Station’s Christmas in the Park returns to Stephen C. Beachy Central Park Nov. 30-Dec. 1 and Dec. 7-8 from 6-10 p.m. Enjoy old-fashioned hayrides, cookies and hot cocoa, live entertainment, a petting zoo, inflatables, real snow slides, photos with Santa and more. Admission is free!" This is a family friendly event that encourages family connection and fostering the Christmas spirit.

My Role

For the majority of my volunteer experience, I had the privilege of standing at the top of the snow slide to pull up tubes and then push kiddos and their families down the slide. This was my favorite volunteer experience not only because I had to ability to converse with all kinds of people, but because I was a part of creating a smile on everyone's faces. I laughed and smiled until my cheeks hurt. I truly felt in my element getting to make people smile. One of my other duties was standing at the bottom of the slide next to the exit gate. My job was to keep people from getting too close to the hay blocks at the end of the slide that are put in place to stop the tubers and also, to keep people from coming in through the exit and cutting the line. Let's just say I had to chase down a few kiddos.

What did I learn?

I learned a couple of significant things from this event. First, the value of saftey and clearly defined rules is extremely important in event management. Every volunteer and staff member must know the rules, not just for management of chaos, but because majority of the rules put in place are for safety reasons. There were a couple of instances where some other volunteers were not enforcing the rules and it resulted in me running towards the end of the slide to pull some small kids away from the hay blocks. I got there just in time before they were going to collide with the incoming tuber. Lastly, I learned that I do very much enjoy working with families. I knew this about myself, but it was affirmed in the joy I experienced just pushing families down a snow slide.

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