Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Wednesday, September 12, 2018


Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2007. On weekend mornings, Peter took Mattie out fishing on the Potomac River. Mattie and Peter were early risers and of course as soon as Mattie got up, he was raring to go. Mattie loved being on the water, riding in a boat, and was learning to fish. As you can see they caught a catfish! The fish was on the boat long enough for a photo and was then released back into the Potomac. 






Quote of the day: If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. ~ African Proverb

Over the weekend, our friend who typically houses our annual candy drive, asked that we move the candy to a storage facility this year. Mainly because it is overwhelming to house 12,000 pounds of candy for month. As soon as I received her request, I began checking out storage facilities in the Alexandria and Arlington area. I narrowed my choices down to three places. 

Yesterday, Peter and I went to visit each facility for a tour. The first facility we visited was lovely. We loved the staff, the cleanliness, and the fact that the facility was new and near a police station. However, I felt it was important to be honest with the facility and let them know what we were planning on housing in the unit. I brought a flyer about our candy drive with pictures. Though they loved our mission and the purpose of the drive, the company's policy is that NO FOOD of any kind can be stored. So one down!!!

So we moved onto company number 2!

At the second facility, we met the manager. He is Nigerian, and studied in Italy. He speaks Italian fluently. We got along splendidly. He gave us a tour of his facility and we told him what we needed to store. Again he immediately quoted us the same food policy as the last facility. But in his case he decided to make an exception for us, because he liked our mission. 

This is what the hallway into the unit looks like. It is climate controlled, clean, and secure. You can't get into the building without a code and every unit is locked. 

This is the size of our unit.... 10x30. It is the size of a garage. It will be perfect for both sorting and storage of candy in bins. Of course the main concern is candy donors. They have been used to dropping off candy at my friend's house at any time of day. Now that we are using the facility, candy can only be dropped off on certain days and I will have to man the unit to receive the candy. However, we are going to work on streamlining the process this year, so that candy drop off and sorting are on the same days. We will no longer accept candy donations 24/7 for two weeks straight. This may deter some people from donating, but time will tell. The drive has gotten bigger than a home grown project and therefore this seems like the most practical and efficient solution.