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Young AmeriTowne On the Road all set up.
On Tuesday, August 12, our Leadership Luncheon took place at the Hyatt in downtown Denver — after months of hard work and preparation. Though the event was Tuesday, our staff was already hard at work setting up the highlight of our town, “Young AmeriTowne On the Road,” on Monday, the day before. I was lucky enough to be part of the set up process, which was also the first time our staff was able to take the reins and put together On the Road on our own. As to be expected, things got off to a bit of a slow start. With staff members looking over blueprints and trying to piece together what seemingly is one giant puzzle, the first shop was the hardest.
To give you an idea of the process, each shop has 1-2 bags filled with poles to build walls, and a cover to zip around the wall after being built. Each pole is numbered and must be put together, piece by piece, and then screwed into place to avoid collapsing. After all these are put together and the cover is on, the pulls must be wedged into stands, which sounds a lot easier than it actually is.
A few other things to note about On the Road: first, shops can only go up one at a time. There is no working from opposite directions and meeting in the middle. Shop 1 must go up before shop 2 and so on. Second, each piece has a purpose and if it is in the wrong spot, the rest of the town cannot move forward.
A learning curve was definitely in place for our staff but it was nothing we could not take on. It was by no means an easy process; it even required a much needed Chipotle break mid-way through. However, when we saw the first walls go up, we turned our efforts up to eleven and shops starting popping up quicker and quicker each time around. Our team pushed through and successfully “built” the town well under our anticipated timeframe. Though we ran into a few roadblocks, as is to be expected, it was a strong foundation that the following day’s event would be built upon.
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After the conclusion of the event we now had to tackle the next challenge, taking down On The Road. Less than 24 hours after the satisfaction of building this breathtaking town, we were now responsible for taking it all down again. Just like the day before was our first time putting the town up, it was now our first experience with taking the town down. However, this time we did not get off to a slow start, we jumped right into it and before long each staff member was in full swing. Whether they were responsible for taking down walls, folding wall covers, or moving boxes, we worked together as a team and similar to the day before, we learned from our mistakes and got through the process quicker than expected.
We can’t wait for our first schools to attend Young AmeriTowne On the Road in October. Stay tuned for more information!
