Day 1544: Back in the Saddle

Return home, jump in!  Don't mind if we do.  Steve worked five hours on the sets for the musical and I spent that time on Quest.  He was very pleased with all the progress that Ben S, Clare and James made while we were away.  There's only ten days left till the preview assemblies!  Ben commented that he never realized how much there was to do back stage!  Kathy and Sandy have been working on Aida's robe and so I'll help them with that tomorrow.  Then, we'll top the day off by painting the stage!  That's a sign that we're getting close!

My first task was to write a letter to the mayor and Board of Trustees asking for the water to be turned on for the toilets in Russell Joy Park.  Seems like a small thing, but we got no cooperation last year.  The issue is the impact on the environment.  Imagine: ninety-two teens, twenty-five adults and all the families and the only place to urinate is the forest at the edge of the park.  According to Leave No Trace principles, the cat hole should be a minimum of 100 feet from a creek. There's nowhere in the park that's 100 feet from a stream, so a hundred people peeing in the woods does real harm.  There's no excuse not to open the lavatories a day early and prevent that damage.  I did not mention that the public works boss promised to do it last year and then didn't.

Second, line up folks to work the food truck.  Thankfully, our long time volunteer mom from Brocton will return to take the lead.  One of our former adult hikers will lend a hand since he can no longer backpack.  Then we also have a crew of parents from Brocton, Cassadaga and Fredonia.  Awesome.

Then, I moved on to equipment and personnel.  It's time to begin planning tent partners, cook groups and hike groups so I had to confirm that two adults would be back.  And a mom called to donate outgrown boots.  All small, but important tasks.

Mother and daughter hats!

At ease guys!

The happy couple!