The Brownie Boy...

My friend Ter's grandmother always used to say that moving to California makes people crazy.  Ter said he never saw it in me until I started running marathons and then it all went down hill.

I know I have used this blog to display many tear jerking stories that have tugged on people's heart strings and a few of you have even admitted to shedding some tears while reading.  However, yesterday I was also crying at work, but for a different reason.

Each year around this time, GOTB does our final fundraising push as we are soon approaching our Mother's Day and Father's Day events.  We do a mass mailing to all of our past donors who have not yet contributed.  Even though we start preparing this mailing back in February, there always seems to be so much to do the week that it is going to go out.

This time around is no different so we have elicited the help of some volunteers.  I love it when we have volunteers in the office.  Not only are they free, but they seem to bring interesting stories and a flare to our office.  As busy as I get, I always spend a little time with the volunteers.  I always let them know what we do and I am always interested in why they choose to volunteer.

So yesterday during lunch I spent some time with the Brownie Boy.  Brownie Boy was a recent graduate from Georgia Tech who hailed from Southern Georgia.  In addition to having a pretty nifty accent, he was all decked out in a flannel shirt and a straw hat, not something you normally see here in L.A.  As normal, I told him what we did and I asked him why he came to volunteer?

In a proper Southern accent, he gave the following response.  "M'am, I'm not going lie during Easter Sunday, I was at a friend's house and I ate this brownie.  After I ate it, my friend told me I should have only eaten half of it cause it was loaded with the good stuff.  I was so high that I couldn't barely move.  Yesterday I was still feeling the effects of the brownie and pouf I saw the volunteer ad on facebook.  It said the magic word "pizza will be provided" and me still having a case of the munchies was in.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I am a man of my word so even though I don't have the munchies anymore, I felt compelled to come here and volunteer for you today."

He caught me so off guard that I didn't know what to say.  I ended up laughing so hard that I was crying.  Ter, your grandma was right, California does make people crazy.

I want to say an extra special thank you to Neville Anderson and Prettybird for your kind donations.  To everyone, Bus D-2 has now surpassed its goal of $4,000.  Thank you, thank you, thank you again.  However, don't let this shy you away from making a donation.  We will be accepting donations until June 30, 2010.