Charity Cone Day!

It never ceases to amaze me how the Father provides.

Each year, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream chooses its favourite local charity, and for one day they offer the public a free scoop of ice cream, of their choice, for a small donation to go towards the chosen charity (in this case, $10 HK, which is about $1.30 US). It’s a great way to raise awareness about the charity, and also a fun way to make some money. Amazingly, a friend of one of our team members works for Ben and Jerry’s, and recommended Crossroads for this fundraising event. Incredible!

So yesterday, 23 September from 12 – 8 pm we were in the six Ben and Jerry’s locations around Hong Kong. We had teams of volunteers signed up to pass out our flyers, help with crowd control, tell people about us and how they can help, and of course eat free ice cream. It was a long, intense day, but definitely a lot of fun. For my part, I was travelling between three of the shops to check on people and snap photos. I was also holding the keys to the locked donation boxes, and had to trek from my location in IFC Mall, in Central on Hong Kong Island, up to Kowloon Tong in Kowloon (mainland side), which is a good 30 minutes on the MTR (in rush hour, no less) to empty the boxes there. The shopping center in Kowloon Tong, called Festival Walk, needed their boxes emptied because they had a rush of school kids come through and the boxes were overflowing! For two hours, they consistently had 60-80 people in line!! And all making donations for their ice cream, towards Crossroads!! Hallelujah!

Unfortunately, however, Typhoon Hagupit was bearing down on us. I know I have explained typhoon warnings before, but we were at T3 all day, and once the warning hits T8, public transport shuts down, and so do the shops. The winds were increasing all day, but we were still sitting at a T3. In IFC Mall where I spent most of my day, there are a series of glass doors leading outside that kept being whipped open and banging so loud, they had to send people to hold them so they wouldn’t hurt anyone. The doors lead out to the ferry pier, so they didn’t have the option of locking them at that time of day.

The signal finally hit T8 around 6:30 pm. The Ben and Jerry’s shops were shut, and myself and our small core team went to the other sites to collect the donation boxes. They were so heavy, but that’s a good thing! We enjoyed an inexpensive but well deserved dinner in a Chinese restaurant in the mall, which had windows looking outside. The rain, from the wind, was literally horizontal. Incredible. The glass doors had big X’s from tape in case they broke, and as I walked outside, I had to walk at angle into the wind to avoid being knocked over. It was intense!

We got home safely, locked up the money, and each headed home to collapse. It was a long day, but worth it because we gained some much needed donations and got our name out there a little more. And hurray for selfless, wonderful volunteers who helped us all day despite the weather! Yay!