Just How Many Volunteers Does It Take . . .

I was asked a question yesterday that I didn’t know the answer to. I don’t think anyone has asked me the question before. I was asked how many volunteers do we have to put on the St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic. I had to scratch my head and think about that one. I truly don’t think we count. But then I decided we needed to count so I dug out the work list that was published in the church bulletin several weeks ago and added them up. I will tell you that this list is not complete in any way. But it gives you a place to start.

There are 898 volunteers.

That doesn’t include those that serve on the picnic committee every day for a solid year and have been doing so for years. That doesn’t include the people who come out and pick corn, shuck it and cut it off the cob. That doesn’t include the people who come out to clean the BBQ pits. That doesn’t include the people who come out to clean the KC Hall in anticipation of everyone who will eat dinner on Saturday. That doesn’t include the people who came out to assemble the Bingo Stand or the people who came out to get their stands ready for Saturday. That doesn’t include the people who have worked all year making items to sell in the Country Store. That doesn’t include the people who come to prepare the slaw, potato salad and cucumbers and onions. That doesn’t include the people who cook and dice potatoes at home for the potato salad. That doesn’t include the people who cook the fresh vegetables or who bake the pies and cakes. That doesn’t include everyone who comes out to cook and serve fried fish on Friday night.

That doesn’t include a count of how many of the Carrico and Hobbs families that will be up all night barbecuing 19,000 pounds of pork and mutton.

But it does include:

At least 36 people who help to organize and put on the St. Jerome One Mile Classic. At least 43 people that help to organize and put on the Fancy Farm Fun Run 5K. But that 43 doesn’t include the Fancy Farm Fire Department who sets up a water sprinkler to keep all of the runners cool. There are at least 13 people selling hamburgers, hotdogs and drinks. There are 6 people selling nachos, pizza, funnel cakes, cotton candy, Italian ice and drinks. There are 5 people selling tab bingos. Last year Fr. Darrell decided to have Bingo on Friday night. It’s not as big a crowd as Saturday. There are 7 people helping him. I hope that’s enough.

That’s just Friday night.

There are 14 people who help in the kitchen during the day Picnic day. There are 13 people who help that night in the kitchen. There are 39 people who help in the dining room from 11-2. From 2-5 there are 25 people helping in the dining room. There are 29 people helping in the dining room that night. You wonder why. Well, once you sit down with your meal there are people who bring you drinks and when you’re ready they’ll bring you a dessert if you don’t want to get up and get it yourself. Oh, and they clean up after you. There are 11 people who do nothing but cut pies during the day. There are 8 who do it at night. There are 6 people whose only job is to slice tomatoes. There are 11 people who sell meal tickets throughout the day and 2 who take them up. There are 20 people who cook chicken all day. There are 14 who cook chicken at night. There are 9 people who cut meat for the dining hall on Saturday.

That’s just for the Picnic meal.

There are 18 people who help Mark Wilson with the politicians and everything that happens around the speaker’s stand. That’s a conservative number.

There are 2 people who tell people where to park their RVs. But that’s before the picnic.

There are 9 people who work in the Raffle Booth during the day. There are 22 who are in there at night. That doesn’t include the number of parishioners and others who have been selling chances on the new Chevy Silverado pick-up truck for most of the summer.

There is a group of senior citizens who give tours of the church during the day on Saturday. Those aren’t counted in the complete number.

There are 16 people who do nothing but count money all day. That doesn’t include the people in each stand who take care of making sure the money is right before they take it to those people. It is my observation that people who handle money picnic day treat it better than if it was their money.

There are 10 people who work in the country store picnic day. I mentioned the people who make items throughout the year but they’re not included in our total.

There are 13 people who work in the souvenir stand. There are 17 people who work in the toy booth. There are 11 people who help little kids throw a bean bag into Sponge Bob’s mouth. There are 18 people who work in the Ping Pong Stand. There are 9 people who work in the Lollipop Stand. There are 10 people Treasure Fishing.

There are 15 people who work playing 5-Card Draw Poker all day. I’m sure there are plenty more because those games are very popular.

There are 43 people listed in the work list who bone out, chop, and package BBQ by the pound. Trust me, that’s not all of them. Oh, and that’s just in the Meat Stand during the day.

There are 30 people who work in the hamburger stand. There are 40 people who sell BBQ sandwiches. There are 46 people who do nothing but sell drinks. That doesn’t include Marty Toon and the members of the Dossett families who help out. There are 17 people in the Funnel Cake/Italian Ice Stand. There are 22 people in the Ice Cream Stand. And they’ll run out of ice cream, I’m sure.

There are 55 people who work in the Cane Stand. There are 17 people who work in the Pop Ring Stand. There are 12 people who will help you hit a Hole In One. There are 17 people who work in the Football Toss Stand. We don’t know how many people work in the Dunking Booth because all of the guys who work at Nutrien Ag Solutions handle that booth. There are 10 people who man St. Jerome School 1909.

But that’s not anything. There are 3 shifts of people who work the Bingo Stand. It is a huge undertaking. It is exhausting. There are 32 people who work from 10-2. There are another 33 who work from 2-6. And then there are 39 who work from 6-10. They could probably use more help if you are looking for something to do.

How can a parish who has a membership of 541 families handle something this big? Well, honestly, we couldn’t do it without everyone bringing their families and friends in for the Picnic. That sounds so simple but it’s the truth. Most families have members who haven’t lived here in years that always come home to work the Picnic. That is because each of those stands that I was telling you about have been run by the same families for generations. The kids can’t wait until they’re old enough to be able to work at the Picnic. They grow up to take over the stand. It’s very humbling to realize that there are some stands that have 3 and 4 generations of the same family. Shoot, Ms. Ruby Rowe was 102 years old and still slicing tomatoes. This will be our first picnic without her.

So, if this is your first picnic, or your 50th picnic, you won’t need to be told that it takes quite a few people to put this thing together. Watch how everyone interacts with each other. We all know our job and we’re there to do our job.

And we’ll all be out there the next day to put the picnic grounds back the way they’re supposed to be. And then we’ll start planning for next year, the 140th Annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic.