The Royals

I thought it was time to update about some of the fine things Kansas City has to offer its citizens and visitors, when I realized that I had only really done one activity enough to actually comment on it. And that would be attending Kansas City Royals games.

I have been to four so far, and I have lived here about a month. The first person I met on the plane to my training in Albuquerque, Tom, is a big fan, and I have been tagging along with him and his buddies.

That's tom's head in the corner. Notice the clipboard, he keeps score. Tom luvs the royals.

Tailgating is where it is at. The key is to really suck up the beers before you go into the Stadium so you dont have to buy beer inside and so you are sober by the end of the game. I really think that the Sharks are missing out on a lot of fans by not having a tailgating parking lot. Turns out, though, I am horrible at the bean bag toss.

Tom at the grill.


They have just redone the Kauffman stadium for this season, and it is quite nice. Lots of fountains, of course, because it is Kansas City (there are fountains everywhere here.) Turn out has been pretty good, I hear, for the Royals, likely because they are actually doing pretty well this season, and because people want to se the updates to the stadium. Harvesters may be having an employee event on the Bud Light Party Deck within a few months, which will be a blast if it happens.The screen, seating, fountains, etc. behind the outfield are all new. Love the crown on the screen.




The party deck. Someday I will make it.


This is all to say that if you come and visit me, expect to go to a Royals game.

Harvesters

So I have been at my job for two weeks now, so I figured that it would be a good time to talk about Harvesters and what I am doing there.

The Harvesters website really explains the scope of their work better than I could. As the areas only food bank, we serve nearly 60,000 people a week in 13 or so counties. This is why the organization works with hundreds of food pantries, has 100+ employees, and the most bombing facility ever:

I am working a 200,000 square foot office/warehouse facility that was once a computer shell manufacturing plant. This place is really cool, and certainly the largest and fanciest non-profit offices I have seen. My office is upstairs in what my department calls the "Ivory Tower", and I have a great view (which I took a picture of but apparently accidentally deleted it.)

View of the atrium from the landing outside my office.



A view from the entrance of my department, the chair facing the camera is mine.


This page lists the four large special events that Harvesters hosts each year, and I will be working a lot on these events. I will also be doing something called prospect research, which is really neat and a little creepy at the same time. Basically, I will use public records to 1) assess an individual's wealth, and 2) determine if they would have interest in donating to Harvesters. So far, I have been training, sending out mailings, and entering lots and lots of donor data.

I like the organization a lot and I love my department. I am really looking forward to this year with them!