Well, that went smoothly.
No hassles. That's it. Very little to report. Centre 2 functioned well today.
I started at 7am (OK, 7.10am... I was late!) and by half-past had kitted myself out with a walkie-talkie and was manning the main gate ready for the general volunteers who start at 7.45. Actually, it's the only entrance, so all guests, volunteers and deliveries come through the same door (there are alternative fire exits).
While I was helping drivers unload their deliveries, the 100 or so other volunteers were busying themselves putting final touches to the rest of the centre, so that it was ready to receive guests at 2pm.
We made a particular effort to ensure that surrounding streets did not suffer from litter caused by guests (or anyone else for that matter) and teams of volunteers, wearing gloriously vibrant yellow Crisis tabards roamed the area picking up rubbish. Luckily there was no evidence of any groups hanging round.
Unusually, the centre was very quiet and we only had 35 people queuing up to come inside by the time we opened. This wasn't the case at the other 'open' centre on the City Road, which had reached capacity by 3.30pm and had to shut its doors. As a consequence, a couple of dozen guests came over, taking us closer to full capacity.
The most excitement was caused when a delivery of fridges and freezers arrived and had to be unloaded - an industrial-strength freezer was extremely heavy and just one inch short of being too large to fit through the building's doors, but after a major effort, a team of volunteers man-handled it up to the kitchen on the fourth floor.
The mood was light-hearted and there weren't any real incidents of any sort.
Roll on Day Two.
Posted by dompannell at December 23, 2007 7:04 PM