Veritas, The Open Door's Blog
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Big Balloon Breakfast..... Cold Adirondack Style!A couple of weeks ago, around 80 people volunteered their time to do something crazy.....get up at an extremely
early hour to be able to arrive at the large hangar at the Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport at 4 AM (yes, that is right---4
in the morning!). These people quickly got to work prepping food for cooking (mixing pancake batter, cracking eggs,
making gallons of coffee, etc...), making sure that all cooking surfaces were prepped and ready to go, and the tables, chairs,
plates, silverware, etc.... were all set for use. At 5 AM, the hangar door opened up to a line over 100 ft. in length
of people, waiting in the cold (and it was VERY cold!) for an all-you-can-eat feast, with options of pancakes, french toast,
eggs cooked any way you like, sausage, orange juice, hot chocolate, coffee, and tea. We ended up serving around 2,600
breakfasts that morning from 5-11 AM. At the busiest time, we had a waiting line outside of the hangar that was several
hundred feet in length. Even with the early hour, extreme cold (did I mention that it was abnormally frigid outside?),
and temporary loss of overhead lighting (which caused us to open the hangar doors for more light, subsequently letting more
of the lovely abnormally frigid air inside), the team of volunteers worked amazingly well together, preparing, serving, and
cleaning up after the Big Balloon Breakfasters!
It was a nice perk to be able to look out through the hangar doors
and see all of the hot air balloons inflating and then lifting off. It was an amazing sight! Even more amazing
to me, though, was seeing the happy faces of people willing to donate not only their time, but their sleep and comfort, to
work together as a team to bless The Open Door. We had several multi-generational groups (mother, daughter, grandmother;
parents and children; friends of all ages), church groups, individuals in recovery, teens, and "street people,"
all working together as a cohesive unit. I am so grateful to everyone who helped us out (and especially those who stayed
later to help us to break everything down, since the festival was cancelled early, due to inclement weather--we had about
15 people stay another 4 hours cleaning everything, packing it away, and loading it into the trucks). Many thanks to
all involved.......and hope to see you next year!
PS--if you are interested, here is a link to a photo
album of that day. If the link doesn't work, just copy and paste it onto your browser!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dhersey&target=ALBUM&id=5386922800583204289&authkey=Gv1sRgCIDV8KuloO7A8gE&feat=email
9:19 am edt
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