Emergency but not 911

At the last minute I volunteered to work at the Wine Festival in Decatur. With 2200 attendees and Ponce being closed, it is no small festival. Even more last minute due to cancellations, I was asked to be a gate captain. As my instinct is to say “YES!”, I readily agreed. Unfortunately, I had never worked an entry gate at any festival during “first” shift — when most people arrive, of course. While I did my best to keep the line moving (ID check, ticket scanned, wristband on, program and glass distributed), we had a very long line that seemed not to end. We kept readjusting based on bottlenecks, but nothing seemed to be optimal given our space limitations. The people in line didn’t seem to mind the slow entry process, so all was well.

In addition, I was a bit surprised by people who tried to bring in kids (21+ only), dogs and such. And those who were furious that we required ID for a wine tasting event. And those who were dismayed to arrive and find the event SOLD OUT. I don’t know when I’ve ever dealt with so many disappointed people in my life. It is not my skill, but I stepped up and dealt with them. (Yeah me!)

But the ultimate test was when one of the second shift (no longer my shift but I was still there) volunteers fainted. Others closer to her caught her and were helping her, but my phone had no signal. I tried calling 911 to no avail. Very quickly, we had a police officer who could ask for help on his radio. And our amazing Fire/Rescue professionals were there in a minute in order to assist. I was annoyed at myself that all my training was not helpful, but as we had help within a minute, all was well. And I now have experience and ideas which I will happily send on to the organizers.

Since the medical emergency was occurring in the entry, I saw the line to enter was building up once again. I took my position of authority and opened up a spot in the fence to the side and moved the entry line over so as to not get in the way of the emergency but to still allow people to enter. Unfortunately, as I tried to put wristbands on people, my hands were shaking uncontrollably. Everyone was quite understanding when I explained why I was having trouble banding them.

With all the constant reorganizing and then the emergency, I ended up not taking a single photo the entire time…. so I’ll use one from last year!

entry gate - 5 nov 2011