OK, I've written about the issues and the campaign, but, you know, that's not all it's about. We couldn't function without volunteers, and I am one of them, so I thought I'd give a slightly more personal perspective on what was An. Epic. Day.
I'd seen the promo pics on the web, so I knew what Aurora looked like, how she worked (more or less), all that technical stuff, but have to admit I was feeling just a wee bit over-excited like a kid before Christmas. I mean, how could I not? Still, I knew when and where to turn up on the day and that my allotted role was 'crowd steward'. OK, that's kind of familar - wear hi-vis, make sure everyone's safe and doesn't do anything too daft (except for costumes - the dafter the better) - standard fare at carnivals, parades, demos etc etc etc. Of course, it rare that anything this complicated ever goes 100% as expected, and so volunteers were needed to join 'traffic teams'. Yup, as we didn't have permission for the parade, the roads wouldn't be closed, so we'd have to do that ourselves. Eek. We were going to get very used to car horns very quickly. Still, I like a steep learning curve...
To be honest, apart from the beeping, it went pretty smoothly - one grumpy bloke who seemed to think 'he'd move the bear himself' (it weighs 3 tons mate) and one plonker who thought pushing us with a car was an appropriate response (no harm done luckily) - after that, the Met (who to be fair were pretty helpful given they didn't want the parade to happen cos of the number of other events that day) got rather more involved with traffic management - we just had to make sure Aurora could negotiate roundabouts and junctions. Beep beep, yeah yeah, whatever - but you know, it was marvellous - all of it - not necessarily the most relaxing role possible, but wow - being part of a team getting a bus-sized bear through the streets of London. That blew away anything else like mere wisps of polar snow - a really strong reminder of why I volunteer, and why sometimes (often) it's worth putting yourself out there for what matters. Everyone who volunteers does this, and Greenpeace as a whole does it too (think 'injunction'). Like I say, wow. Aurora rocks, Greenpeace rocks and Shell, well it's up to you whether or not you continue to suck.
Comments