We Need You!

"Why Volunteer?

Part of being a great volunteer is loving what you're doing. Find something that you're passionate about or something that inspires you, and then find a need in your community."
More here.

Volunteers -- make the events of the Fun Fourth Festival happen!

From the volunteers on the Freedom Run Course who make sure runners are hydrated to the volunteers who portray Uncle Sam to the volunteers with the Greensboro Concert Band and Philharmonia who perform the 1812 Overture with the fireworks -- we are grateful to all of our volunteers!





As you can imagine..we always need more volunteers...selling tickets, helping kids on and off the big slide, marching in the Parade with our Junk Jam Group, feeding the volunteers, collecting cans for Urban Ministry, helping with arts & crafts, beer sales, souvenir sales...you name it we have it all!! If you are interested in becoming a volunteer -- look at this or give us a call 336.274.4595!


We need you!!

bit by bit, putting it together...

Stephanie, our summer intern, started this week. She volunteered for us during Festival of Lights, and I guess she liked us so much that she just couldn't stay away! And who could blame her? Let me tell you: we are pretty cool. We can't help it.

On Tuesday, Stephanie's second day, we had one of our Fun Fourth Chairman's meetings. And even though this is my fourth(!!!) Fun Fourth, there's always a point during the preparations when I feel like Stephanie: all this new information is being thrown at me, and I'm trying to quickly process it and figure out how all these pieces will come together to create the Fun Fourth Festival.

Coordinating all the events that comprise Fun Fourth is a giant undertaking, and Grassroots depends on our wonderful, hardworking volunteer Chairmen/women to handle various elements of the Festival. The Chairman's meetings are when we get to hear about the work that everyone has been doing, and we start to get a sense of what the Festival will look like.

Here's a sampling of some of the things we talked about on Tuesday:

• Reiterating for the millionth time that the Street Festival this year is on Saturday, July 3rd. We cannot say this enough: Fun Fourth. Street Festival. Saturday, July 3rd. We would shout it from the rooftops if we could.
• We got a sneak peak of the Fun Fourth mascot for this year. Dolley is still evolving, but we can't wait to show her off.
• As our fearless leader Betty Cone says, "stages are the backbone of any festival." We got an update on the various bands and entertainers who will be gracing our five stages this year, courtesy of our entertainment coordinator, Kathleen McGirty. As always, there's a wide variety of acts, so everybody's sure to find something worth listening to as they wander around the festival. The stage schedule will be online soon, so be sure to check it out!
  
• Hey, Southern Living fans! There's going to be a piece on Fun Fourth in an upcoming issue of the magazine, so be sure to check that out!
• The deadline for Craftscene and Vintage Village applications has been extended to June 1st - HINT HINT.
• When asked to tell us about the Freedom Run, our always entertaining Freedom Run coordinator, Mebane Ham, began with this: "We're gonna have a run." Well, yes. But we do have some really exciting news for this year's run: we've partnered with a wonderful organization called Miles for Smiles, an athletic ride along for children with disabilities who would not normally be able to experience outdoor endurance events such as marathons, triathlons and other road races. For more information on how to participate, you can visit our website.
• And finally, the most important decision we will make all year: who has good enough karma to control the weather for the fireworks on Sunday.

There were many other things we talked about, but we don't want to give everything away. It's mind-boggling to contemplate all the things that need to be dealt with between now and the Freedom Run on June 26th, and then all the other things that will get put together in the week between the Freedom Run and the Street Festival, but that's why we have these meetings. We deal with the messy details, so that you can come to our events and know that you're going to have a great time.

The Faces of the Fun Fourth Festival

Each year the Fun Fourth Festival is held in downtown Greensboro. This event is produced, planned and organized by Grassroots Productions Limited a non-profit that focuses on community events in Greensboro. Over 1000 volunteers work more than 12,000 each year to make the Festival a success. Volunteers serve on our Advisory Board, help coordinate the entertainment, plan Children's Activities, sell tickets, answer questions, sell coke & water, coordinate the parade and many other jobs.

We thought you might like to meet some of The Faces of the Fun Fourth Festival. We've asked our volunteers to answer some questions and every week we'll feature a different volunteer.

Greensboro -- meet Daintry O'Brien:

Q: How long have you bee a Fun Fourth Volunteer?

DOB: Longer than I haven't

Q: What is your current position with FFF?

DOB: Food Vendor Czar! (Daintry makes sure all of the food vendors are operating within permitted rules -- health, fire and festival guidelines and takes care of any problems or concerns that the vendors may have during the Festival)

Q: What other positions have you filled?

DOB: Festival Director, Stadium Event Coordinator, Red Tape, I'm sure there are others but that's off the top of my head.

Q: Tell us a funny or interesting story of something that happened to you or something you saw at the Fun Fourth Festival.

DOB: Well there was the year the traffic cones for the road races went AWOL. The road crew got the delivery address mixed up. They told us it was delivered to 620 Elm Street. So we started driving down Elm Street Friday night, found over 150 orange traffic cones piled onto the front porch of 620 N. Elm Street!! Or the year the headliner band for the Block Party found the beer supply.....

Q: How did you come to be involved with the Fun Fourth Festival?
DOB: Betty Cone

Q: What is your favorite Fun Fourth food?

DOB: Funnel Cakes or Roasted Corn

Q: What is your favorite Fun Fourth Activity?

DOB: Love the Reenactors!!

Q: What is your favorite piece of patriotic music?

DOB: Stars and Stripes Forever

Q: If you could invite one of our Founding Fathers or Mothers to lunch who would that be and why?

DOB: Dolley Madison

A great big Thank You!!! to Daintry O'Brien for all that she does for the Fun Fourth Festival. When you are at the Festival eating your favorite food raise your funnel cake or roasted corn in a toast to Daintry!!.