So this is Tuesday’s blog, and it is late. Things have been a bit crazy for $0$ and for me personally over the last few days. This weekend was huge for us at $0$. We had two new people come in, one through Facebook (which is a first) plus someone who had previously contacted us that we were following up with.
One of the first people we helped was a lady who contacted us for dog food for her puppy. We had been meaning to follow up with her to get her a sleeping bag and some other things. We finally had those things ready and were going to get them out to her when we had another contact come in. A guy who needed something to eat. I was out of touch with a migraine, so Alan, multi-tasking hero that he is, set him up at Taco Bell. Meanwhile, the lady who had gotten in touch with us the night before, while Alan was in the air (he had flown out from Oakland to South Carolina to talk to some people at South Carolina State University) got back in touch with us. She had come in not through one of our cards, but because she saw us online. This was yet another first. So poor Alan is managing three people the day after he’s back home.
When I finally wake up and charge into the fray, Alan is on the road, going to meet the puppy lady to deliver her stuff and our client at Taco Bell is having problems picking up his order. He’s feeling out of place and having a panic attack because we told him he could just walk in and pick it up. Having done this before, we thought that was all he had to do as well. So I get on the phone with him, calm him down, then call the manager of the local store. It takes a bit because the Taco Bell app has no tech support and there’s no corporate customer support either, but we finally get him his food, so everyone is happy. I still have a note on my board to track down someone higher up at Taco Bell and make some noise, because that wasn’t okay.
In the meantime, Alan has met Puppy Lady and delivered her stuff. She is thrilled, we finally get the photo op we missed last time, and Alan heads home. We are still talking to the lady who came in on Facebook to figure out how to best help her. It looks like we are going to use the store pickup function at Wal-Mart to provide her with what she needs, we just aren’t sure yet.
In personal news, I have more substitute teaching jobs lined up, and Alan flew out to SC. We have an office in Oakland already, but we are planning on setting up something in Orangeburg SC as well. We both come from SC, and we have staff in SC, so it just makes sense. So that is what is current at $0$, and with the two of us. We are pursuing the mission, as always.
