Delivering 89 pies the day before Thanksgiving is eventful to say the least. Especially if you are partnered with our Executive Director, Lisa Guyon. For any of you that know Lisa, excitement just seems to follow her around. Our day started at 7 AM when we realized our zipcar had a severely flat tire. After a conversation with Zipcar we hopped in the only car available, a small sedan. This meant that instead of the pie boxes being neatly loaded into the back of the CRV, we were now surrounded by Pie. There were boxes filled to the top of the car and on my lap. We finally made our way to our first destination, the John Hancock Tower. We got a little lost finding the loading dock but I was completely amused as Lisa kept rolling down the window (in the rain) because the smell of molasses was sickeningly sweet.
Delivering pies to 60 stories of the John Hancock Tower was also pretty amusing. Luckily Normandy Real Estate let us park in the loading dock, use a pushcart, and gave us a freight elevator (Thanks Normandy!). Unluckily for us, we separated and both got off (separately) on floors with card-access only entrances. This means that once I got off on the 5th floor I was trapped. I couldn’t go into the tenant space because I needed a card to swipe at their door, and the elevator was also locked with swipe access so I couldn’t go back up or down. I knocked and yelled at the doors, but the space was dark and there were no people. I was literally trapped! I finally called management and they were able to send a maintenance man (with card access, hooray!) to save me. I was a little embarrassed until I got in the car and told Lisa and she said, ‘Wow the same thing happened to me on the 4th floor!’ She must have yelled loud enough though, as someone let her out.
The rest of the day went much more smoothly, and it was genuinely awesome to see how happy people were when they got their pies. Not only did they receive a delicious pie to bring home for Thanksgiving, they also got to feel like they really made an impact this holiday. That’s what this whole thing is about. We met so many people that thanked us and told us how great the program was, and I couldn’t help feeling like I had really made an impact this holiday too.
Sarah Gudernatch, Community Connector
