What a BUSY and TIRING weekend.
I worked Friday from 7 am – 7 pm and then had a couple of errands to run afterwards. I got home, ate dinner and then headed out to wash my truck. I am not really the type to go to a car wash after dark, but I did not have much of a choice. I went to a car wash by my house, so I felt pretty safe. While I washed my truck, I kept looking around to make sure nobody was lurking around. Some call me paranoid, but I call it being safety conscious. While I washed my truck, a van pulled up and backed in to one the slots where the vacuum cleaners are. He just sat there, so I watched him like a hawk. Once I was finished, I headed home.
I actually slept well on Friday night, which was a good thing….especially since Saturday was going to be a long day. I was up at 6:30 am on Saturday morning. I took my shower, shaved my head and got all my REACT equipment loaded into my truck. I headed up to Piedmont, Okla. And arrived at 7:45 am. Our REACT team met at 8 am that morning at the Piedmont Bank to get ready for the big benefit concert. The concert, named “Concert in the Cornfield,” was a benefit concert that was organized in order to raise money for those families that had been affected by the May 24, 2011 tornado that ripped through Piedmont, destroying neighborhoods. The event featured many fun things for the kids, lots of food and beverages and continuous bands from 1 pm – 9 pm, with the headliner performing at 9 pm.
One of the organizers of the event is a wonderful lady I work with. She is in a management position and asked me a couple of months ago if our REACT team could assist them with traffic control, crowd control and pedestrian safety. We gladly accepted the invitation. They had actually planned for over 1,000 people to attend, but about half of that attended. We were ready to assist with parking and pedestrian safety at 9:30 am. We had the parking lots marked, safety cones and barricades in place and REACT members were at their assigned posts. Since this was an event that I scheduled and since I personally knew one of the coordinators, I was the Incident Commander for the event. One of our members brought his gator for me to drive, making it easier to keep a check on everything.
Our team made an excellent showing and were prepared for the worst, but were relieved when it wasn’t going to be as difficult as we thought it would be. It was easy to maintain the parking lots and easy to make sure pedestrians got across Piedmont Rd without getting hit by a vehicle. We are a professional emergency response team and we proved it at this event. We worked very closely with the Piedmont Police and the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office. We all worked very well together and our team made a great impression. It was a 16 hour day for me, but it was well worth it. The lady I work with was very happy with the way we handled things and some of the event attendees thanked us as well. We were all very tired and sleepy as the event came to an end. We all left at 23:30.
I slept in on Sunday morning and did not make it to Sunday School. I did get up in enough time to make it to the worship service. Afterwards, it was lunch time, football time and nap time. I took advantage of all three. Since our pastor had lost his voice and our music minister was in revival Sunday night, I was filling in for him and leading the music during the evening worship service. I made it back to the evening service and led music. Everything seemed to go just fine. After church, I picked up a couple of burgers for me and Karla and went home to watch football. My body was still so tired and sore, I could not stay awake. I was in bed by 9 pm.
Next thing I know, my alarm is going off….and it’s Monday!!
www.centralokreact.org
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