Cool clear water, water. . .

See? If we had music on this blog you'd be listening to The Sons of The Pioneers right now. Just use your imagination and maybe hum along.

So last night some of the Team H.O.P.E. ladies and I went to Chase Field (local ball field. Used to be called Bank One Ballpark and everyone called it Bob) to accept donations for the cause. We had bottles of clear cool water as a thank you for folks that donated. And mercy, did they donate! Folks are just basically good and kind. What is always difficult is that at any sort of BC event you run into people who have lost a loved one to Breast Cancer and sometimes when they are sharing their stories it's difficult not to cry. I tell you, I'm so incredibly grateful to still have my grandma and my mom and my moms sisters.

So we received just over $300.00 last night in donations and got to chat with lots of nice people. Especially the nice Phoenix Police Officers. And a very sweet and understanding gentleman from Chase Field. (Who is hopefully not reading Thursday's post)

Apparently someone called the police to complain about our presence. We were set up in such a way that we were not blocking traffic, we were at a corner that had several ticket re-sellers (is 'scalpers' a derogatory term? Should have asked one of them last night - they were nice guys and donated to the cause) but no food or drink vendors. We thought we were okay but apparently one of the regular water vendors complained.

So the very polite and very kind Phoenix Police officers came over to our table and asked us several questions. The words 'permit' and 'permission' were used quite a bit. I guess if you are on actual Chase Property you need permission from Chase. Which is a concept I agree with - I am a believer in Private Property rights. But I hadn't realized we were on Chase property, I thought we were on Public Property, which it turns out would have still been breaking a rule - just a different one. (Notice how nicely I'm refraining here from making snide comments about the whole concept of publicly purchased private property!)

So the police officers rather than running us out of town on the light rail actually started calling people in the different departments of the City and then at Chase to see if we could stay. The final verdict was we could stay that evening but next time we need to get proper permission. Which we will. Thank you Phoenix Police and thank you Chase Field!

Now - because this was a Team H.O.P.E. thing you know there was a certain amount of tackiness involved. The theme Jeannie came up with for our not selling but accepting donations and giving away water?

Yeah, it would be easier to type water sale but that wouldn't be prudent at this juncture! Anyway - the name? Jugs for Jugs! And yes, we had three sizes of water A, B, and C.

Now folks are walking past our table on the way to the game. We had a bright pink sign (I should have brought my camera!) that said what we were doing but not all folks are going to stop and read the sign. So a certain amount of carnival style barking is required.

"Hello, we're accepting donations for the three day walk for breast cancer. We have cold water as a thank you for any donations"

Dosen't look too long in print but it is a mouthful when you are trying to reach people walking by. So sometimes our delivery got a bit mangled. Especially when Kristine called out to someone,

"Want breast water?"

Breast water? I'm thinking we are going to be harassing her for a very long time for that one. Not that Jeannie will escape teasing.

At one point when the police officers were first speaking with us Jeannie offered them each a bottle of water if they didn't make us move. Kristine and Denise quickly esplained to her that that would be bribery (granted the very slightest form of bribery. I believe that most cops can not be bought - and I'm thinking that cops who could be bought would want more than a bottle of cool clear water) I do wish we could have given them some water - they wear these hot black uniforms with all this heavy equipment and are out there protecting people and it seems like a bottle of water would be a small kindness and not a bribe.

Oh, and when I used the word 'hot' to describe their uniforms I meant in the temperature sense - not as an adjective like sexy. Although. . . . .

So we will keep y'all posted about when we will be doing this again! And we have another public appearence event that is going to be soooo much fun, we're just in the process of pinning down the proper permissions!

Have a great Weekend!

Oh, PS

The pictures I post on the blog that aren't pictures of us or of Pink Ribbon Products that we are reviewing all have some meaning or reason.

We will give a free bottle of Team H.O.P.E. water to the first person who correctly explains the picture on Thursday's post.

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