About once a year, I join my partner when he goes on his weekend excursions to companies giving away science equipment and science supplies to schools in the area. I used to go more often, but these events I affectionately call “Geek Give-A-Ways” are just not the exciting events they sound like they are advertised to be (Yes, I am being sarcastic). 

 

Gary has found out that no bribes of Starbucks Grande Non-Fat Lattes can get me there in the mornings for these events.  Also, he is a Chemistry High School teacher.  Although I have grown to really appreciate chemistry over the years, my experience with High School Chemistry was not the best. 

 

I still remember my teacher, Mrs. Duckworth.  She wore those slanted glasses that had a little chain so she could hang it around her neck when she took it off.  She always wore them down on her nose and her eyes would peep over them when she addressed the class.

 

We had very few labs and all she did was lecture. My mind wondered elsewhere while she droned on. If it weren’t for some study groups and some really smart classmates who could translate what she said for me to understand, I would have never passed that class.  For a long time, I had an aversion to beakers and ionic bonding.

 

Even, though I do not like attending these supply giveaways, I am glad that companies do them.  In normal times, they are needed, but now with all the budget cuts, schools are in dire need of any supplies that can be donated to them.  We are already seeing the effects of the economy on the school systems with downsizing with most school districts already on the books. This also means larger classrooms. 

 

I hope in our quest for cost efficiencies we do not compromise educational excellence. I am all for trimming the fat but often in these cutting and slashing maneuvers, political interests meddle with good common sense.

 

So back to the big event!  When we got to the give-a-away, there was already a line around the building. Gary gave me a box to hold with a name of his high school.  There was a young man who stood behind us. We all started chatting.  He was in the process of finishing his doctorate program at Stanford.

 

He was trying to get some supplies for a lab that he was conducting at school. We found out that he just accepted a job as a Professor at BYU.  Coincidently, that is where I graduated from so we had something to talk about. 

 

The doors finally open.  There was a kind of controlled frenzy that took over the crowd. Luckily, it is not the same kind of thing like one saw at Wal-Mart when the doors opened on Black Friday.  Still, the Geeks were all kind of in that crazy attack mode.

 

The security table was set up where you had to show I.D., sign in, and get a fluorescent green label stuck to your shirt before you entered the building.  Then we followed the arrows to the area where the supplies were with further instructions to not touch anything behind the yellow tape.

 

Then we went in, and I basically tried to follow Gary and not be mowed down by Geeks on the prowl for their treasures. I did help by carrying boxes out to the car. I finally got a cart to transport the final items.  Luckily, after what seem like forever and before I wanted to slit my wrists, it was time to go home. Well, we actually went to the school first and dropped the supplies off in the science storage room.

 

All joking aside, I am glad that schools are able to benefit from these supply give a-ways.  I am also grateful for teachers, like my partner, who take the extra time, out of their weekend to get the supplies.

 

So,  later that day, I did wash the geekishness out off me by going into San Francisco and doing some Christmas shopping on Union Square.  Now I was more with my own kind. J

 

 

 

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