Thursday, November 18, 2010

Me + 300 Pregnant Women = An Interesting Afternoon

I staffed a booth at a community health fair in Hamilton, Ohio today. I didn't think I would have too many people interested in Habitat home ownership but this was one of the best recruitment events I've attended since I've been with TriState Habitat for Humanity. There was really a lot of interest.
Most of the other booths were health care related. There were a few, like Habitat, that were outside of this but not many. I also realized as I was setting my booth up that I was the only male in the room. Then, when the fair began, the room was flooded with pregnant women. I'm not sure what this program is, but there were about 300 pregnant women streaming by my booth. Some of them had their significant others with them and some of them had their other children in tote. Needless to say, the room was very noisy. I found myself shouting at people who stopped by my booth and wanted to know more information. It was very crowded at times and there were several little children who came up to my booth with runny noses. I nearly grabbed some of the free hand sanitizer from the booth next to mine. However, I just took deep breaths and tried to keep my composure.
Some of the women looked like they might deliver their babies at any moment. I just hoped it would not be in front of my booth. I certainly was not about to clean that up.
I am grateful the opportunity to reach more families who may feel led to apply for a Habitat home. It was time well spent even though it caused me a bit of anxiety.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!

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