Earth Day is in April. I don't pay attention to the various days of acknowledgement printed on our calendars but I do like Earth Day. I'll accept a little praise for nature. I also enjoy watching people who exist entirely indoors tentatively tiptoeing into nature to appease one of their more earthy friends. I like the corporate "greening" of otherwise man-man, sterile goods and services. It's a hateful enjoyment you see. Like Valentines Day.
I digress. As the leader of the local animal group here, I have to pay attention to these cutesy things in case of overly-enthusiastic group members feeling an opportunity was missed. But Earth Day is different. I like Earth Day. The premise of Earth Day (protecting and celebrating nature) perfectly coincides with the premise of my chicken group (ethical, healthy systems for critters) so instead of having a single Earth Day event to celebrate and educate, I, and my co-conspirator Tessa, decided on a full month of actions - Earth Month - because she and I have lost touch with reality.
We organized four Saturday morning opportunities to volunteer with aligned local organizations doing good things for plants and animals. Huzzah! Opportunities included a trash sweep, weeding and planting at the park, harvesting produce to donate to the hungry, and finally, the big finale, monitoring the critters over at The Goatery during a joggers marathon of some sort. Tessa and I were pleased with our work, for we wanted to participate in all of these things. Who wouldn't?
The point is, I spent my April weekends out being a do-gooder, albeit one that did a poor job making solid connections with the leaders of these aligned organizations which was one of the purposes of our doing this.
But here's a few of Charleston's happiest crap-catchers.
What I'm most excited about was the morning we spent at the goat farm. Post marathon, runners were able to come into the animal pens to pet the critters, and my little group was in charge of seeing to it that everyone was gentle with the baby goats. A dream job - because people are naturally gentle with baby beings.
Not to brag, but the goats loved me.
A second highlight that day; I got to visit Natalie Snortman. Remember
this little cutie? Well she has grown into a bossy troublemaker. The farm folks said she rules the roost and all the other pigs have to do what she says. I was excited to see her - she's gotten so big - and because pigs are smart creatures, I secretly hoped she'd remember me. She did do a kind of double-take with her snout when she first sniffed me, but I don't think she recognized me. I was only slightly offended.
A third highlight that day; the farm needed someone to wear an inflatable goat costume for the runners to pose with for photos. I'd brought Ellie and Brett along with me for this day and when I heard they needed a court jester, I signed Ellie up for the task. She played it cool but I know she was excited about it.
Overall, Earth Month was sparsely attended by our group members. We know we deviated from our normal activities but Tessa and I don't understand why most folks didn't want to roll around in the dirt with us. Over the last five years as the ringleader of this group I have noticed amusing trends about volunteers. What everyone in our group has in common is a desire to help animals, and what's funny is how it manifests. Some people volunteer because they want to be the type that volunteers - it does not come naturally to them and they seem to have to fight themselves to come participate. Some are fair-weather advocates; they want to help, but only if its an activity they enjoy or its not too far from their houses. Some are so wholeheartedly devoted to the cause that they have lost a sense of humor about anything and can't move through a day without it hinging on their belief system. Some people are normal - and those are our best allies. In an environmental/animal rights world, there are a lot of mystical, beaded-curtain, smoldering incense types and those folks are not great ambassadors for getting regular people to take you seriously.
There are the virtue-signalers, the distracted college students, the wannabe group leaders, and a few elderly singles finally dipping their toes into a pool they've always wondered about.
Learning how to mobilize and utilize the different personalities is fun, cringeworthy, and incredibly slow. I've talked to some other volunteer group leaders and we all have the same problem: the hardest part is getting people to follow through. I know they are busy and sleepy. It's hard to do all the things you have to do and then try to add in things you want to do and then add in things you want to do but don't really have to do because probably enough other people will be there to make sure it all works out.
That's why sticking it to The Man is a slow process.
But we do win eventually.
