Chicago Artists’ Coalition

I volunteered for the Chicago Artists’ Coalition’s Starving Artist Fundraiser on June 29^th. This review is for that particular event.
I would imagine that if you somehow got lucky enough to round up a bunch of people willing to volunteer their time from 5pm to 1am that you’d be nice to them. Now, most of the organizers were nice to me except for this one woman. I don’t know who the hell she thinks she is, but it is not okay to be rude to your volunteers. I had to wait in line to use the restroom in the back of the volunteer lounge, and when I was in the restroom, this particular lady had the nerves to obnoxiously knock on the restroom door, «hurry up in there!» She wasn’t even next in line! There were two other people in front of her. So when I came out, I gave her this nasty «You’re fucking immature» look. And you know what she said to me? «Lose the attitude.» OH HELL NO. FUCK YOU BITCH. If I hadn’t had known that there were two other people in front of her waiting for the restroom, I’d have taken my sweet time. I’d finish my business and stand in there and wait another 5 – 10 minutes while looking at my watch. If I hadn’t had as much restraint as I do, I’d have given her the finger as I walked back to the main part of the event.
All the other organizers were nice. I was tearing up in my right eye because my contact was dry (and something probably went into my eye too), and one woman gave me some contact solution to wash the contact len out.
I didn’t like that as volunteers, we were never told if and when we could take a break from the event, if and when we could eat and drink the food and alcohol that was offered at the event, etc. etc. etc. The event seemed like a mess, but we volunteers pulled it off.
My friends who volunteered with me as well as a friend who coincidentally attended the event with her coworkers made the night much more bearable. The food was delicious, of course, and I enjoyed the cheesy cheers from the cheer squad.
We were told that we’d receive an invitation in August to a thank-​you event for the volunteers. That was nice. Unfortunately, the thank-​you event was scheduled on a random Wednesday night (October 2^nd) without giving us a selection of dates and times to choose from. Not only that, they only gave us a one-​week advance notice. Oh, and they kept misspelling my email address, and if I didn’t have friends who also volunteered for this event, I’d have never received it (even after I mention this to them over and over in our email exchange when they were trying to set up the actual event). It was as if they didn’t care whether we can make it or not. Whatever, I was not impressed with their snooty attitude. If it wasn’t for a fundraiser, I’d have given them one-​star.

Art.

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