Wine and Dine, Rain or Shine - Volunteering Report

After volunteering at the Expo last night, then running a 5k this morning, we were ready for the third part of our great Wine & Dine Weekend - volunteering at the RACE!!!

We got to the Volunteering Tent around 5:30 and checked in.

First table we stopped at was the Windbreaker table. Each volunteer gets one of these and you are required to wear them so runners can see you.   They are thin and not very water-repellent or warm, but it's a good place to tuck lots of stuff, because it has LOTS of pockets (2 big ones inside and 2 more outside).

Jackets at the front table, snackage in the back

Our next stop was the Snack table.  Generally, at bigger Disney races, you get 5 items with no repeats.  This time, we could take whatever we wanted, including repeats.  I ended up with Doritos, BBQ Lay's, SunChips, Oreos, Nature Valley Bars and some SlimJims.  (I think Disney wanted to get rid of almost-expired snackage!)  We also each got a bottle of water.

Junk food!!!!

After putting on our jackets and filling our clear sling-bag, we boarded our specific bus.  As you can see on the credential, it tells you what bus you need - in this case, we had to get on "Finish Area" shuttle bus.

The two holes are to show that you were given a jacket and food (so you can't lie and get more)

When we got to the Finish Area, our Team Leader told us that we would be responsible for bananas and runDisney food boxes.  Our table was in front of the Medical Area.  I saw this gallon of BioFreeze and had to share it with you! (Later that evening I asked one of the medical folks how much it cost, and I think he said over $100!!!)

BioFreeze and strapping tape - what did I sign up for again?

At first, me and The Kiddo set out bananas, but she wanted to be alone, so I moved over to the other side of the road and helped the Hubby and another volunteer (David? I think) set up runDisney boxes.

Sure, it looks all pretty and organized... NOW!

At this point, our Team Leader came over and told us that the radar was looking nasty, and we should be expecting rain - very soon. Now, remember, it is November. It's chilly (the low was going to be mid-50s).  This did not bode well for the runners. OR for us.

We set up a full table (there were 4 sets of tables) with bananas and boxes before the Team Leader told us to hold up on putting anything else out. He didn't want the boxes to get soaked when the rain started. Makes sense.

At this point, we were done on our side, so I helped out The Kiddo a bit, then wandered around.  Of course I had to check out the medals (I was kind of jealous that we didn't get to hand out medals)!!! This year's medals were spinners - this meant that the middle part (that looks like Spaceship Earth) spun on a small axis to reveal the Running Chef Mickey on the other side. Cute!

See those tiny posts on top and bottom of the spinner?  That's how it spins!

We were close enough to the Park that we could see Spaceship Earth (the blue ball on the right) as well as the bigger bursts from Illuminations. Unfortunately (and unfortunately for you, reading this post), I only had my iPod with me to take photos.

I love being so close to the finish line

It was getting colder outside, and it had begun to rain at this point. My wonderful Hubby demonstrated how we should hand out bananas, so that we wouldn't get too cold or too wet.

I'm dry, take your banana

The Kiddo also modelling the beautiful Emergency Green windbreakers.

Sure, it LOOKS waterproof...

It's gone past sprinkling, but not yet pouring - we kept our bananas safe under tarps.

Stay safe, little nanners!

These wonderful packets were scattered around the Finish Line area.  It's Vo-Ban, something you would need to sprinkle on vomit to absorb it and sweep it away. Eww.

If you're gonna spew, spew near this

More fun items at the Medical Tent - "Skin Lube"

Okay, seriously, what kind of party are we having?

It's raining a LOT harder now. Our teammate, David, happened to work at the local hospital (that was proving medial assistance), so he went in to the medical tent and scored some ponchos for us to use.  We threw those suckers on over our windbreakers. At this point, it was coming down pretty hard, and it was cold, too.

We're soaked, but we're festive - all of us had glow bracelets and necklaces and stuff (too bad you couldn't see 'em)

Oh, and because it was cold, the Kiddo and I had decided to wear jeans. Not a big deal, but when you add RAIN to that mix, you get wet legs that take forever to dry! It didn't take long before I got really uncomfortable and unhappy with the weather. I can only imagine how much it sucked for the runners!

Before it got busy and miserable

I took a horrible photo of either the winner, or one of the first to come through the chute.  It was honestly so wet and rainy that I wasn't paying much attention to anything at this point. 

Check out this terrible photo of some skinny guy with a heat sheet! It's so awesome!

Unfortunately, from here on out, I don't have any more photos, and everything was such a soggy blur, my report is basically crap.  Which sucks, because I can remember that it was super fun, and lots of stuff happened, but when I type it up, none of it's going to make a lot of sense!  But I'll try.

Once the fast folks came through (you know, about the first 50 people who are here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, but ran out of bubblegum?), the "regular" runners came through and it got more fun.  Very quickly though (by quick, I mean within an hour or so), tables began having issues restocking boxes and bananas.  This is because we didn't OVERstock to begin with (because of the rain), so we were constantly behind the rest of the night.

There were times that we ran out of bananas, or boxes, and we had to send people to other tables. Being that we were the first table on the right, people were automatically going there first, which made restocking hard!    When that happened, I - She of the Big Diaphragm - was sent to the front of the table to direct traffic elsewhere.  I would do the Disney Point (two fingers, never one!) and say with a booming, official-sounding voice: "Food is located to the left, or further down!" This would give the guys time to restock the tables, and then I'd stop for a while.

It got to the point however, that that became my 'job' for the rest of the night, and, well, I inadvertently turned into a Cast Member. Runners heard The Voice and how official I sounded, and came to me for all sorts of things!  Where is the bathroom?  Where is water? How to I reunite with my family? It was really funny!  I think even some of the ACTUAL cast members were confused - like they didn't know who I was...

One request that I got that made me super-sad was a gentleman who came up to me and showed me that his BRAND-NEW spinning medal was broken! The inside part had fallen out!  I took his medal and ran back to the Medal Area for him and got a new one to bring back to him.  One of the medal volunteers told me that this wasn't a rare occurrence - a lot of them were falling apart. And later that night, I began to hear a few clanks as medals fell...  I think if I'd paid $200+ for this race and my medal was so defective I couldn't even get a finisher photo with it, I'd be pretty pissed!!! A lot of people were, judging by Facebook and other social media the next day.  Perhaps Disney will rethink spinners...

Anyway, eventually we ran out of boxes and bananas, and even Craisins (eww), so I busted out my Cast Member voice again and directed remaining runners to the left.... and further down. We broke down our tables and cleaned up our trash while the last few runners came though and then it was time to head back to buses. Man, I've never been so glad to be on a bus (a DRY bus) in my life!  We made it back to the Volunteer tent, picked up our ticket and drove back to our hotel.  It's been a LONG day and I was beat!  Let's get some sleep before we hit up a park in a few hours (what?  You know we wouldn't leave without going to a park!)

Give Kids the World 5k Race Report

We woke up bright and early on a chilly Saturday morning – though not nearly as early as those Disney runners – and made our way to Medieval Times. That was where parking and the pre-race area was.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the parking lot was full and we were redirected to Osceola Mall (or whatever it’s called now, it’s been remodeled recently to resemble a Mexican shopping plaza or something).  Once there, we hopped on an old bus that took us back to Medieval Times.  
 

Blondie with Bangs seems very concerned...

We picked up my packet, which had my bib, a shirt and other various stuff, then kind of milled around for a bit.

The Gingerbread Man seems a bit creepy, or is it just me?

There was a lot of talking on the stage, introducing awesome kids who had stayed at the Give Kids the World Village and were happy and healthy now. It was hard to hear, so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hear the stories.

November in Florida - it DOES get cold here, ya know!

After the speeches and whatnot, we were sent to the starting line, which was actually about a quarter-mile away from the pre-race area. We walked down a back road (like a service road), behind a Chik-fil-A (yum!), to the side of a Walmart, which had been cordoned off with turned-over Walmart carts. My family gave me kisses and went to take their place on the Spectator side of the carts. 

I sure hope Walmart did that to their cards (or GKtW got permission to do that)

My crazy family is over there!

There were a LOT of people here! It didn’t seem like it ‘til we all lined up. There was a sign that said “Walkers Line Up Here” but it was so busy that corralling was impossible to do. While I lined up, I saw a few people in costumes (mostly cute tops or headbands).
 

The crowd behind me, looking towards Chick-fil-A

The crowds to the right of me - with the Walker sign

We were off!  The start line was decked out with lots of balloons and decorations that really made it festive!

I wanna dress up next year!

The first third of the race took us behind Walmart and down a two-lane road that passed typical Central Florida condos. Not a lot of spectators in this area. But Give Kids the World put out a lot of signs on the side of the road, giving both information and entertainment as we headed towards the Village.
 

130,000 is too many families

The first water stop was at the exit of the Village, so I grabbed a water and kept going.

Mile 1 was right at the turn into the Village, and we entered into a “backstage” area first.

It doesn't look it, but she was cheering us all on

Can I just say that I was blown away by this place? I knew that the Village was a fun place that was all about the kids and there was ice cream all the time and stuff like that, but I didn’t know what it would actually LOOK like, and I don’t think I actually expected a NEIGHBORHOOD!  There were small houses, each with a sign out front that provided the house number, as well as the name of the family inside.

Houses in many styles, but all had porches and garages or carports - so they seemed "Normal"

There were lots of playgrounds, too, and water areas.
 

Splash area

Someone even put out a bubble machine!
 

Bubbles are hard to photograph - trust me that there were bubbles

There was a neighborhood that was totally dedicated to Halloween, which was our turnaround spot.
 

Happy Halloween!

On the road, in front of the pool (I think it was the pool), people had used chalk to write down the names of teams that had fundraised.
 

"Thank You to Our Teams"

Names of the bigger teams that raised a lot of money

Two characters also hung out in front of the playground, posing for pictures.

We were in the Candyland area

We passed the second water stop after the playground, and I knew that sadly, my time in the Village was coming to an end.

Even their Caution signs are themed!
 

There's something extremely cute about bunnies in hardhats

Mile 2 was back on the two-lane road, and we were heading back to Walmart.
 

This sign was right before you left

Mile 2 - let's head to the finish line

Lots of employees or volunteers from Aaron’s stood near the finish line, cheering us in.

Not that you can tell from this photo...

I turned the final corner and finished somewhat strong. I finished in 50 minutes. Which is by far NOT my best time, but I slowed way down to enjoy the Village, so I’m fine with that. I picked up my medal, and some water, then looked for the family, but they were nowhere to be found. I was so confused… I walked to the end of the chute, then back to the beginning of the chute – no family.  I took a quick selfie, then went back to the end of the chute.
 

Besides the fact that this dude is Lion King'ing a baby, I have no idea what's going on here

After a few minutes, they came out of Walmart. Apparently, earlier, when Hubby had asked me how long I thought this would take, I jokingly said ‘an hour,’ he took it seriously - so they went shopping! 

Hello, I'm a creepy Gingerbread Man with a phallic jousting stick! Run as fast as you can, little girl!

We went back to the finish line and I got my official finisher shot, then we started walking back to Medieval Times.

I finished!

At this point, Chick-fil-A was open and cooking, and MAN it smelled good!  I love Chick-fil-A!

Thank you for the welcome, Chick-fil-A!

Back at the post-race area, we were given a goodie bag and a gingerbread cookie (of course) and we went over to the food area. They had a great selection, including water, bananas, Gatorade, granola bars, pretzel thins and more! Around the area, I also picked up a few pens, a rubber bracelet (the Kiddo likes those) and a Medieval Times crown and mouse pad (it’s proudly under my work mouse as we speak).
 

Everyone should have a crown

Goody bag of swag

Water, gingerbread man, pens (one shaped like a sword!), mousepad, snackage

We bussed back to the mall to get to our car, then headed to WaWa, our favoritest convenience store ever!  Check this place out:

Junk food as far as the eye can see (and a bonus bearded weirdo)!

They have a plethora of cooler drinks!

Another shot of the snackage area

One machine has CUBED ice, but the other has CRUSHED ice!!!!!  I LOVE crushed ice!!!

At the grill area, you use touch screens to order food! So tech-y!

Hubby and the Kiddo each got a milkshake (so healthy) while I got a Scrambled Egg and Bacon bowl. 

24oz Chocolate Cookies & Cream Milkshake

Scrambled Egg and Bacon Bowl

We took our food back to the hotel room so that I could chill and change. Sadly, the eggs were fake eggs, so they weren’t super tasty. However, the bacon was pretty good.  Not worth what I paid for it, so I probably wouldn’t get it again. The family said that their shakes were awesome.

After I changed and took photos of my swag, we curled up in bed for a while to take a nap. We would be volunteering at the Wine and Dine Half Marathon tonight, and we needed to check-in at the Volunteer Tent around 5 for our overnight shift. Sleep was definitely needed!    

I'll leave you with this cool video of the run that I got from the Gingerbread Run's website!

Location: Kissimmee, FL

Host: Give Kids the World Village

Race Fee: $35

Packet Pickup: Busy, but very easy to pick up packet

Parking: Limited parking on-site; was bused from an off-site location

Support: Two water stops; no sports drink; lots of spectators within the Village; fewer spectators on the two-lane road

After Party: Lots of food choices (for those of us who don't like bananas!); food was set up well; not much of an actual party so to speak

Wine and Dine Volunteering - The Expo!

After discovering that you can volunteer at runDisney races last year, we've become hooked!  It involves all my favorite things - Disney, running, freebies and giving back! It's a Win-Win-Win-Win! (Wow, there's a lot of exclamation points in that paragraph...)

Anyway, we headed down Friday morning for our first shift. We would be working 12:00 - 7:30pm at the Expo.  After checking in upstairs and getting our credentials for later, we were told that we could grab a box of lunch before our shift began. Disney always decks out their Volunteer spaces nicely, and this time was no exception!

We've worked with many of these volunteers before

Of course, we had stopped at Subway before we got there (we didn't know there would be lunch - we were expecting snacks only), so we grabbed a box, so that we'd be able to eat it later on. 

It's a crappy photo, but you can see that they had a fridge for all the boxed meals, a rolling cooler that was filled with big and small bottles of Dasani, as well as a table set up with two Keurig machines, which both me and The Kiddo fell in love with - Disney was kind enough to put out hot chocolate k-cups for us non-coffee folks!

Keurig - the least frugal and least eco-friendly way to make coffee

I got a large bottle of water, as well as a cup of hot chocolate, mixed with one creamer (to cool it down and make it richer).

Yum! Hot Chocolate and Cold Water

 I got a Ham and Swiss Cheese boxed lunch. Other options were Italian, Turkey, and Vegetarian.

Boxed Lunch Presentation

 The first thing you see when you open the box is a bag of chips and a freshly baked cookie! Yum. Under that is the sandwich. 

Boxed Lunch Open Presentation

 Also in the box was some applesauce, a spoon for said applesauce, napkins and condiments. 

Can I get another cookie? Mine looks like applesauce

Once we finished our Subway, we hung around for a bit until our shift was called to the Expo floor. We followed our Team Leader, who assigned people to the Packet Pickup Booths.  The Kiddo was picked to work alone (well, away from us, but with other Volunteers), and Hubby and I worked the Kids Races Booths.

This is her "Geez, she's taking a photo of me" smile

At the kids booth, we gave out their bibs, a set of ears (if they ordered them beforehand), a cute Certificate that their parents could fill out later, a Wine and Dine Program (we didn't give out a lot of these; most of the parents already got it when they picked up their own bibs), and a tee with Santa Duffy on it.  I wish I took the photo of the shirts from the side of the table - all those teeny tiny baby-size shirts were freaking adorable!  I think the smallest size was a 12-month size?  Awwwww!

James' bib and ears

Cameron's Certificate of Completion

Official 2015 Wine and Dine Event Guide

Kid's Race Shirts - from 12 Months to Youth Large

It wasn't super-busy at our booth, so we did a lot of standing around.  There was a lot of open space by us, so we saw lots of kids just playing/spinning/jumping/whatever in the big open area.  

Or, you know, kids on leashes

I was able to snap a quick selfie of me and The Kiddo in the wild.

The Kiddo and Me

The Kiddo returned the favor by attempting to take an embarrassing photo of me dancing the music runDisney pumped in. She failed - not embarrassing at all!

Go White Girl, Go White Girl, Go!

At the end of our shift, we had to tally up how many bibs we'd given out that day, plus straighten up our area before we left.  We were able to grab another box lunch to take with us back to the hotel (they had a bunch of leftovers), so we didn't need to stop for dinner, which was a good thing, because I have a race tomorrow!  While other people are doing the Jingle Jungle 5k at Animal Kingdom, I'm going to be running around the Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee!  Check out my next post for my race report.