Vanessa Kane, CMP,CMM Manager of Meetings and Events,
Veterans of ForeignWars (VFW) of the United States
TheVFWhas an outdoor function called the All-Conference Reception that takes place toward the end of our annual convention. It’s a big outdoor picnic with about 2,500 people, held in the eveningfrom 7 to 9:30 p.m. The area is set up in a big square, with the fourVFWconferences—East,West, Big 10, and South—at each corner of the square. In the mid- dle are two tented areas for the bar and the food. Atten- dees go from tent to tent getting their goodies from the various states and departments within the conferences, and then line up to get their food items at the food tent. The first one I was involved in helping to plan was in
2006 and took place in a big public park outside of our convention city of Reno.Myjob was to assist mostly with the logistics—i.e., securing the space, tents, tables, chairs, etc. Each of the states and departments supplied volun- teers, and a local group was involved in securing other items, including food items for the event. At the last minute, the promise of a local vendor providingsome of the
main food items for the event fell through, and we had to regroup. One of our department officers went to Costco and bought all the frozen shrimp they had in stock, as that was a traditional item given out at the food tent. He drove up shortly before the event was to open, with the back of his rented Ford Explorer filled to the top with hundreds of bags of frozen cooked shrimp. I jumped in and helped other volunteers in the food-
prep area, and spent the biggest part of the evening, hands in rubber gloves, putting bags of shrimp in alu- minumpans with water and runningmy hands back and forth through the water to speed up the thawing process. We would then carry the pans of thawed shrimp from the food-prep area to the food tent in the center, where they would hand it out as fast as we could resupply it to the waiting guests. I’m not sure whenmyhands were so cold. All in all, the event was a success, and I don’t think the
attendees ever realized anything was amiss. —As told to Hunter R. Slaton