CITY BOY GEEKINESS

Two years ago when I still in school, I volunteered for We Day as a Parking and Transportation volunteer. It still remains one of the funnest and most inspiring days I've had as a volunteer. This year, my friend Kemeny, who has worked with Free The Children and Me To We, invited me along to this year's event.

We Day is always such an inspiring moment. I received another book (which I really need to read the previous two) and come together to be the change.

Now I really want to start volunteering again!

I'm a volunteer guy. Sometimes people give me a weird look at some of the events that I choose to volunteer. This time the weird looks came when I told people I would be volunteering for the 2010 Toronto Zombie Walk.

I love Halloween. It's my favourite holiday and I love everything about it, though I did not expect what I would find on Saturday. Thousands upon thousands of zombies (like there were zombies EVERYWHERE!) were coming through the word-works to get a complimentary toe-tag and participate in the parade.

I worked at the registration table since like 10:30 a.m. and things surely started off slow because the opening ceremony wouldn't start till 3 p.m. Once things began to get closer to the ceremony, zombies by the bus loads were making their way through the park to get registered for the event. The other volunteers and I at the Dundas location were frantically trying to register as many people as we could and get them notified in the statistics.

Suffice it to say that at 4:35 p.m. we had to shut down the registration booth. The walk had to begin from Trinity Bellwoods Park and make their way to Christie Pitts. We didn't even finish registering all the zombies for the walk, we had to usher them into the pitt and tell them to commence the walk.

I was so tired after those 7 hours that I choose not to join in for the big festivities at Christie Pitts. I will say that it was hilarious seeing all the original costumes that people choose to dress up as like Alice in Wonderland, Marie Antoinette, and someone came as Jesus with an actual life-size cross. The weather was really gloomy which was a plus for the ambiance but it started to rain and I felt so bad for the makeup artist who spent 7 hours straight helping people put on their make up.

Hey Bloggers!

I know that I have been slacking off for writing this blog and I feel really terrible about it. Time got away from me this past week and I was completely busy  to write something that I actually enjoy to do on my time off. I swear that hopefully it will not happen again and I will bring you new reviews and articles to enjoy yourself with. Deal?

Well if you must know what I have been doing this past week, I was entirely busy with school and preparing group projects and assignments. In school we were learning about our personal branding and more about the Public Relations field; I may feel like writing an article about personal online branding later on so I'll keep you posted. My class had some great guest speakers on Thursday who were from such amazing places like the PR agency, Edelman, Universal Music Canada, the Maple Leafs organization, and one formerly from Me to We. School is always busy and things are already starting to get intense but I enjoy every minute of it with my friends.

On the work front, Gap is still....Gap. Still getting the hours and having the fun experiences with my work mates. We got some new employees and saw some old familiar faces like our Craig Kielburger-loving friend, Kemeny. I had Linh try and teach me more about Visuals so lets see where that will go.

Volunteering is perking up! Did an orientation for IFOA, International Festival of Authors, at the Harbourfront Centre and prepping for the Toronto Zombie Walk amongst other opportunities. I know I should be slowing down and giving me more time to relax but when I feel like volunteering for something and feel somewhat passionate about it then I like to do it and help the organizations.

Personal is going to be very personal so I'm just gonna keep that to myself for now, haha. I will say that tonight hopefully will be a good night and we will see if I hang out with friends tonight.

Well thats it for catching up and I'll be posting up a new blog entry soon so hang in there everyone.

Sorry that it's been a while since my last post but things have been really busy with me in the personal, work and volunteer life. Yesterday was the craziest day by far because I volunteered for Free The Children's annual event, We Day! Disappointingly, I forgot my camera at home so I wasn't able to take any photos at the event but I'll still tell you one of the most memorable and funnest days I've ever had.

Surprisingly, the other Parking and Transportation volunteers and I got to see a LARGE portion of the concert from the gondola suite areas above the Air Canada Centre. We heard Down with Webster playing, saw Grayson Chance perform, and saw a lot of inspiring guest speakers like Jacob Hoggard, Heather Reisman, Betty Williams, Michel Chikwanine, the guys from MTV's The Buried Life, and Alexandre Bilodeau to name a few. We didn't get to see Craig and Marc Kielburger's speech, but I heard it the day before before orientation with a few others so I already knew how inspiring it would be. We also got to see the cast of Degrassi and I laughed so hard seeing friends bicker over who saw and gets Zane (Shannon Kook-Chun) first.

After the concert was over and all the students were safely on buses, a bunch of new friends and I went to the MuchMusic We Day After Party to see some of the guests up close. The highlight was definitely having Marc Kielburger sign my book (I'm going to be keeping that forever) and seeing Kemeny cry after she thanked Marc Kielburger for everything and he hugged her! It was a great party and all the We Day volunteers really loved to do the We Dance that day.

Yesterday had to be one of the best experiences I've ever had and would definitely volunteer for We Day and Free The Children again after this whole experience. It was great to meet a lot of new friends and hopefully keep in touch with them after this. All thats left now is to start feeling and spreading the message of Be The Change.

I'm back at writing this blog and posting about my time on the weekend volunteering at the Scotiabank Aids Walk for Life. For those of you that don't know, the Walk for Life is an annual event across Canada where companies, people, and organizations raise money for ACT in their awareness and fight against Aids. The Walk commenced again this year on Sunday to a very big crowd and a lot of eager walkers and volunteers.

I signed up to volunteer at the water station so I was passing out water bottles to all the passing walkers and organizations. I ended up seeing a lot of familiar faces and they were truly surprised to see I was volunteering that day but it was my choice. Suffice it to say that I had a lot of fun and met some very interesting people.

There are definitely some high points for the day:

It was definitely a fun experience, could use some improvements but an event and cause that everyone really needs to check up on and get involved in the next year.

If you're interested in learning more about the annual event then please visit their website and think about volunteering or donating, http://www.aidswalkforlife.ca/.