I'm a Volunteer!

Well, I was at any rate. That's what happens when you get so far behind in your blog posts. It's kind of hard to talk about things as though they just happened.

So, a while back I saw that the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) was accepting online applications for volunteers. I figured that living in DC for the year and being a tourist for a year, what better way to add to my "DC Experience" than to volunteer for the PIC? So, I submitted my application and then received an email telling me where I could attend a training session.

There were several training sessions, and mine was three weeks ago. I think there were about 5,000 people there, all volunteers. Even the organizers for the training were volunteers. It was so incredibly organized. Seriously. It was impressive. We had a general session where we were given some general info and then we broke up into smaller groups for breakout sessions which is where we'd be given our assignments.

In the general session they told us that over 80,000 people had submitted applications and only about 13,000 were given jobs. Not being any more qualified than the next person, I'm not sure how I was chosen over so many others, but I was excited.

My assignment? Scanning tickets for one of the Inaugural Balls at the Convention Center! Now, this doesn't mean that I'd be IN the convention center. It means that I'd be scanning people's tickets before they went through the metal detectors before they were cleared to go in the Convention Center. Still, how fun to see people all dressed up, maybe a few celebrities, who knows?

I was even given a dorky cool hat to wear while working and a lanyard with "souvenir" credentials. The real creds were to be given out just before the event.