Asda Burnden Park - 25/08/12

Asda Burnden Park - 25th August 2012 

It's all about the Planning

You wouldn't have thought it is hard to coordinate a collection in a supermarket, we already had the date confirmed, Jim Wells had the buckets, stickers and roll-ups, and a full sheet of Lions who would be collecting in 2 hour shifts, from 9AM to 5PM. What could go wrong?

Well the first problem was a phone call from Jim Wells at 9.15AM, he was on his own, as the other Lion hadn't turned up, I had asked him to call me if there was a problem as I could not get hold of the Lion to confirm he was still ok to do his bit.

I told Jim I would be there as soon as possible, and arrived at Asda at ten past ten, it was fairly busy at that time and we set to in giving out stickers to the kids in exchange for money, and getting money from anyone else who would be so obliging. We also has plenty of bottles from our message in a bottle scheme to hand out if we could (at no cost to the public).

I was down to do the second shift anyway, and was joined by Babu, so no problems in the period from 11AM to 1PM. I handed over to John Fairhurst and Dipanker for their slot, but asked a pertinent question. Was Steve Pendlebury alright to do his shift later, as John had been speaking to him last night on the phone from the hospital radio studio, and he was in bed at that time. John said that he hadn't mentioned his shift today, so we agreed that I would ring Steve, and if he was not up to it, then I would come back and do the first hour of the 3PM to 5PM shift, and John was available to do the second hour.

I am sure you can guess that Steve was still not well, so arrangements were made with John.

So after a brief break at home and some dinner, I returned to Asda, ready to take over, there was no sign yet of Tony Foster, so I was on my own. John said he could come back earlier if Tony did not turn up. Again I'm sure you can guess that he didn't (not surprisingly as I found out he was still in Sri Lanka!), so John would get back as soon as he could.

Next problem, John phoned to say he had a puncture, so would be back as soon as he could.

He did arrive fairly quickly anyway, but it had gone a little quiet anyway on getting donations since about 3.15PM.

We decided to call it a day at 4.30PM, and pack up all our troubles!

When our collection was counted, it had been a below average day, possibly due to the fact it was still in the holiday period, but it is still money we can use with our various good causes, so thanks to all those people who put money into our buckets on the day.

Thanks to those Lions who collected on the day, and next time you want me to coordinate an event, don't call me I will call you!

Lion John Crompton
5th October 2012