04/30/2012
April 19th.
The day that we all had been waiting for.
7:28 am:
The morning of the 19th found me sitting outside the McDonalds on Broadway Avenue, unsuccessfully trying to stifle a yawn. I had just met Allison, our cheerful and friendly CEAR representative, and acquired my eye-melting neon green company shirt . The giant bin that CEAR had left for us to fill with old electronics sat next to me, casting a cool shadow on the concrete. My classmate Jose had arrived 15 minutes before I did, so I dropped off my busted electronics and sat down to introduce myself. Alex arrived about 10 minutes later, ready to work. But it seemed like we were in for a long, quiet day.
8:05 am:
Our first drop of the day arrived -- An elderly man with a TV! Once we dealt with that, I settled in and grabbed some breakfast. (No freebies for us at this location, for some reason. We would investigate later.) I barely had time to eat my egg-mcmuffin before a woman showed up with a truck full of electronic junk! Finally, some action!
8:25 am:
Cars arrived at a steady pace by this time. At one point, we had the logistical nightmare of trying to unload three cars at once! It’s worth noting – one of the cars that visited us had an awesome psychedelic paint job! I should’ve gotten a picture!
10:00 am:
It started to really get hot by ten…and cars were steadily coming in. We even got an old TV that was twice as big as I am! (I let the guys handle the really, REALLY heavy stuff. They were really nice about it, but I’m sure they got a pretty intense workout.)
Our bin filled up pretty fast. Allison eventually had to call to get an empty one delivered. She was a bit reluctant to do so. It’s almost as if she knew what was going to happen next…
10:20 am:
The replacement bin is dropped off by a large and loud movable truck. It is larger, heavier, and unfortunately, destined to be nearly useless. The customer stream had dried up.
10:35 am:
Allison bravely asked the manager of the McDonalds if we were going to be provided with any food or drink for our breaks. (Keep in mind that we were brining business into the location as well…many of our donors had gone in for a snack. One lady based her decision to buy lunch for her office on our presence.) She was rebuffed with a terse, “Life’s tough.” Good thing that iced water is free.
11:00 am:
A PR representative for this McDonalds branch showed up! Alex, Jose, and I let Allison handle most of the talking. Eventually, the rep’s boss arrived with a news camera in tow! They spend about thirty minutes with us, asking Allison questions and getting prime shots of Jose and Alex lifting TVs from the few cars left straggling in. The show biz is not as glamorous as I thought.
12:00 pm:
For some reason, the second CEAR truck arrived thirty minutes early to haul away our bin. We had barely filled a corner of it. Surprised and relieved, we all hopped in our cars, blasted their air conditioners, and headed home.
