Pumping gas for boomerang

This past Thursday (12/4) I went back to my gas-pumping ways for a few hours. I pumped people's gas for them as a way to raise awareness (and donations) for another company my boss owns. For those of you who knew me in my youth you remember that I worked as a gas jockey in my teens and early twenties.

The guy who owns the storage company I work for also has a company called Boomerang Backpacks. Their office is right next to mine. They run a food-distribution program that provides students enrolled in free/reduced lunch programs a backpack filled with healthy foods for the weekend. You can read more about it on the link to their website. I also recommend watching the short video on their site. It's a great program.

Anyway, this year they were chosen to be recipients of a fundraising campaign put on by a local radio station. I'm not very familiar with WOWO, but apparently they have a Penny Pincher program where they pick an organization each year and do fundraisers to help them out financially. They have radio telethons, host a few events, and the event I helped with was pumping people's gas for them for a few hours (at a reduced gas price). They were also broadcasting from the gas station that night.

So, from 3-6 pm I helped pump gas for people at the Marathon at the corner of State and Maplecrest and they gave us 5-gallon buckets to collect donations in. There were maybe 20 of us altogether. Three of us from the storage company (me, Drew & Kyle), some people from Boomerang, and most of the people who work at WOWO. It was a tad cold - about 32 degrees when we started - but once it got busy it wasn't too bad. And it did get busy! It's a fairly busy intersection anyway, but when they lowered the gas price from $2.64/gallon to $2.53... that got people's attention. Plus if you had a Marathon credit card it was only $2.38!

It was a little awkward at first, but eventually we all caught on. The radio station people do this every year, and they were much more comfortable talking to people. Plus a lot of people came in because they were listening to the station, and they knew many of the on-air personalities. There were only a few people who didn't know what was going on and didn't want us to pump their gas. Most people were very nice, and gave nice donations. I received several checks made out for three figures, and a few wads of $20 bills. People were very generous.

All in all, it was a pretty fun time. The boss took us (me, Drew, Kyle & Kyle) to Wrigley Field Bar & Grill for wings afterward. I'm glad I went, but I was glad to get home and warm up when it was over.

program is a free weekend food distribution program that provides students enrolled in free/reduced lunch programs a backpack filled with healthy foods for the weekend - See more at: http://www.boomerangbackpacks.org/program.html#sthash.r5laBH8X.dpuf

program is a free weekend food distribution program that provides students enrolled in free/reduced lunch programs a backpack filled with healthy foods for the weekend - See more at: http://www.boomerangbackpacks.org/program.html#sthash.r5laBH8X.dpuf