ADDENDUM...STROUDESBURG

So we forgot to mention one of our favorite memories that just so happened to take place in Stroudesburg. As you may or may not know, Camfel requests that the schools we go to provide 6-8 student helpers to assist us in setting up and tearing down our equipment. This can be either very helpful or often times very nerve racking. Most of the time helpful, but somedays, I'll admit I'm scared for the future of our country! On this particular day it just so happened that when we arrived at the school, the Principal told us that we would have a very special group of students to help us that afternoon. I'm not sure we were quite prepared for what was about to happen. We were met at the door by a young man named Joe and an aide. We went around and introduced ourselves, Joe introduced himself as "The Clown." We laughed, and asked why he was called "The Clown," in return, he informed us it was because he likes to "clown around" a lot. His aide then went on talking to him about how he wasn't going to be "clowning around" any more because he couldn't afford to get any more suspensions from school. We were just thinking, oh boy...here we go. So we loaded our cart and headed into the auditorium to start setting up. We got the first frame put together and had just snapped the screen on when Joe, aka "The Clown," decides to take a short cut and walk ACROSS the screen instead of around it. I'll admit, I was trying hard not to laugh, what can you do? So we get Joe off the screen and manage to get it up. I decided to give Joe his very own important job of holding the speedy cranks for me while I got the frame and the leg adjusted. I informed him that this was a very important job and once Erin and I got the screen lifted up he would have to help me screw the two together with the speedy cranks. So Erin and I positioned ourselves and lifted the screen. As soon as we did this, "The Clown" takes off running around the room with my speedy cranks! Not only is he running around the room, but he is waving them in the air and laughing a little wicked laugh. I tried to get him to come back, maybe by making him feel guilty, "Joe, you're not going to leave me hanging here are you? That's a really important job! We can't watch the video without the screens put together...Joe!" Didn't work. Needless to say Erin and I got the screen up and Joe's aide got to chase him around the room. Not even five minutes after we had experienced the clown in full force, the door bursts open and 8-10 more boys and an aide come trotting into the room. By this time, there isn't too much work left to be done, we had to put up the speakers, line up the projectors and tape down cords. The aide told the boys to go ask us what they can do to help and before we knew what was happening, we were surrounded by a swarm of very excited boys jumping up and down, asking "what can I do! I want to help! I want a job! It's my turn!" At first, they were a bit overwhelming, but we some how managed to delegate a job to all of them (which is amazing, since we are both horrible at delegating jobs!) By the time we could think of a job for one of them the rest of them would be done with the first job we gave them and ready for another one (well maybe not finished, but had at least lost interest in). Among these guys was a boy named Jason. Jason was really cute and stood out from the others, because he talked A LOT and surprisingly very intellectually. He had little round glasses and you can probably imagine what he looked like without me going into detail. Anyway, Jason had gone up to Erin and asked what he could do next. She didn't have anything for him to do, so naturally she tells him to go ask me what he can do. So he comes over and it was really cute, he says, "Melissa?...Is it alright if I call you Melissa?...(I said it was) I'm all yours Melissa, give me a job." Every time he talked to me, he started with "hey Melissa!" He would put my name in every sentence like 3 times. When we were finished setting up, we had a little down time, so we were talking with the kids. Jason was talking to Erin all about living green and how he was passionate about protecting the earth etc...in the middle of his story, he stops and says, "I'm not sure if I should tell you the rest of this." Erin asked him if it was appropriate and then Dave asked Jason if he knew what the word appropriate meant. Without blinking, Jason snapped up and said "unsuitable for others to hear!" Shortly after, he informed Erin that what he was going to tell her was that in the cartoon he was watching, the sun exploded and the rays of the sun shot down to earth and killed people. He was afraid she wouldn't want to hear about killing. He then proceeded to ask her to go to lunch with him in the cafeteria. He acted like he owned the school, he said, "I can get you into the cafeteria...I'll get you whatever you want. You want pizza? You want a sandwich? I'll get it for you, whatever you want." Unfortunately we had already eaten and the crew left for lunch. This is getting really long and is now longer than the original Stroudsburg entry, but there is just one more part left to this story. We had 2 shows at this school, the first one went smoothly, or crew was busy eating their lunch. Then somewhere in the middle of the second show, Joe (the clown) who was sitting on the front row, decided he had to go to the bathroom. I was standing by the doors closest to his seat. He proceeded out those doors and within a matter of minutes, I saw Joe enter through the other set of doors all the way across on the other side of the auditorium. It was at this moment that I saw a spark in Joe's eyes and knew exactly what was going through his little head. Joe revved himself up and took off running right between the projectors and the stage. You could see his arms pumping and his silhouette run across the first...the second... and then the third screen, it was somewhat reminiscent of "The Flash." Joe made it to his seat where he was scolded by his aide once again. He thought that was funny and I once again found myself trying really hard not to laugh! We got to meet some really interesting kids that day and it was a lot of fun. It's nice to know that we could be a part of making their day for them with something as simple as allowing them to help us set up our equipment. Just the small amount of time that we got to spend with them was really rewarding and they were one of our favorite group of helpers.