The Honor of a Lifetime… So Far

Intoxicating. Exhausting. Humbling. Exciting.

At the risk of sounding like I’m breaking the hyperbolic barrier, I had the most incredible experiences today. One was an experience that I’ve previously had. The other was totally new and, admittedly, unexpected.

For this Thanksgiving, I wanted to do something totally different. Every year, the routine is pretty much the same: eat, watch football (American football, that is), and eat a little more. Though it usually is a family experience for which I’m thankful, Thanksgiving has always somewhat of a self-indulgent feast for me. So this go-round, I wanted to do something totally against my own tradition. I wanted to give thanks in a much more active way. Therefore, I chose to spend a good portion of my day volunteering. That in and of itself may not seem that spectacular, especially on Thanksgiving. A lot of people choose to do some sort of volunteering on that day (so consider me late to the party on that one). However, it’s what I got to do that made this Thanksgiving very memorable.

As I searched for volunteer opps in the Central Texas area in the weeks prior to today, I came across the Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot. The Trot is a race benefitting Caritas of Austin, an organization devoted to fighting against hunger, poverty, and homelessness. The Trot sounded great, so I signed up to help. I helped, along with other volunteers, to assemble race packets and to register runners for the race in the days leading up to the event. However, today was the big day. Race day!

The day started at 5 AM. Admittedly, I am not an early riser. Therefore, getting up so early was a challenge. I had three alarm clocks set to annoy me into consciousness. Oddly enough, I ended up waking prior to any of the clocks going off. Either I was that excited or that nervous; regardless, I didn’t want to be late. We volunteers were asked to get to the race site at 6:30 AM.

As dawn slowly broke way for the morning sun, we were given the rundown concerning our assignments for the day. I was supposed to be a “floater”, moving from station to station to provide assistance as needed. Again, that’s what I was supposed to be. Another assignment, which fell into the hands of another acquaintance, was to dress up as the Turkey Trot Turkey. That seemed like a fun thing to do, serving as the “face” of the race. One requirement of dressing up as the turkey involved the wearing of tights. For some reason, this caused my acquaintance to default on being the turkey. Thus, the search was on for a new soul to fill the role. Well, with me mentioning this, you can imagine where the search stopped: I stepped forward and volunteered to “be the man”… or is that “the bird”? Now this doesn’t mean I have an affinity for tights. Even so, if a pro wrestler can wear them, so can I.

I’m used to character acting. As a past volunteer leader with Young Life, I had to embody many characters, along with the associated costumes as part of entertaining kids. And entertaining kids would be a large part of my job today.

The day was not without its challenges. I had to spend over four hours in the suit! The weather did not help any, as the temperature got near 80 degrees. Trust me when I say I was really sweating in that suit. Moreover, like a dummy, I didn’t eat breakfast this morning. I nearly passed out during the day, getting dizzy a few times. All the moving around didn’t help me at all. I was like Peter Parker in Spiderman 2; after Peter slowed down and stopped the subway train, that’s when he passed out. Still, I found the strength to stay on my feet.

The power of a costume is amazing and somewhat alarming. Being the turkey (alright, no jokes here) afforded me a great deal of privilege. People automatically trust you around their children. Many want to take a picture with you. Many want to joke and have fun with you. This may sound overly dramatic, but I felt a great deal of responsibility in wearing that costume (a superhero complex?). I felt responsible to make people smile, helping them to enjoy their time with the run, and to contribute their collective memories of a good Thanksgiving Day.

To summarize this all, I had a blast! I had so much fun. I was in so many photos (as soon as I get copies I will post them). I got to hug a lot of people and make their day. The kids, for the most part, were fun (some of the little ones were a bit scared of the costume).  Of course, that’s me in the suit in the photo above. If I volunteer again for the Trot, I wouldn’t mind donning the suit again. If I work hard enough, I might try to run the race in the suit. Now that would be a feat indeed! As my last thought concerning the Trot, I was so honored. I was honored to serve as the traditional Thanksgiving symbol and to serve as the race mascot. It truly was an honor of a lifetime to make so many people smile.