This incredible bird has been visiting us regularly. He doesn't let me get too close though. The little boys love using the binoculars. The other morning there were three of them soaring between the barn and the hay slide. I mentioned to Patrick that our building site has neither barn, hay slide, nor trees... so I told him to work on an eagle and other wildlife attracting plan.
So practical.. house first... sigh... then I think perhaps a mini forest and a gazebo, and a pond, and a garden and greenhouse and play area, and barn and guest house .... ... he says, ''you're getting your cart before your horse."... ooo... a horse!
This was one of three presentations Miles gave to promote the Blood Drive for his Eagle Project.
He spoke to the District Cub Scout Leaders and the BSA Round Table Commissioners as well as the High School Seminary Students.
There was a great deal of behind the scenes work.
Hours of telephone calls to schedule appointments, including setting up and running a call center evening with the youth in the neighbourhood. Learning telephone scheduling skills and appointment scheduling. He had to meet with the representatives from the Red Cross to arrange dates, building and write up a short bio of his reasons for choosing a blood drive to use as flyers. He had to hand out the hundreds of flyers and create posters to advertise the blood drive. He approached Little Caesars Pizza for a donation of pizza to thank all the hard workers at the blood drive for their support in volunteering. He also arranged mints and lifesaver donations as thank you's for all the individuals who willingly came to donate.
The day of the drive finally arrived and all the hard work paid off..... until the equipment failed. The red cross remote location drives require an internet connection to run their drives these day and the equipment they had to receive the connection failed. Our 8 hour drive came to a grinding halt after only 2 hours. We were down for a full hour before we could continue. We learned flexibility and the importance of being prepared. We had to make calls to reschedule and cancel some appointments.
With the technical difficulties our numbers were down but we still met the minimum donation goal.(barely) I like to think that I am the reason. Towards the end of the drive, there was an opening so I bravely took it. I had clear expectations. After witnessing the procedure I insisted on a book holder to distract me. Someone else to answer my questions so I wouldn't have to look towards the arm at all and plenty of juice! I proudly wore my "I donated today" sticker! I may even do it again.
Sarah vacillated too long but she'll do it one of these days. Miles is eager to donate and is counting down the months until he can! Only 13 more months!
