With a car filled with materials I drove the 10 miles from our office in Newfane to the West Townshend Country Store last Friday to set up a table at the Farmer’s Market. As I drove, I anticipated how the booth would look and the conversations I might have with other vendors and community members. I knew Jennifer was bringing hula hoops as a fun activity to engage people, but I didn’t give much thought to trying them out myself. I was going to be working after all, talking with people about what WRVthrives is doing and inviting people to take our survey and sign up for our mailing list.
Jennifer and I set up the booth and the market was soon underway. There was great live music that made it hard to stand still and kids started coming over to check out Jennifer’s hoops. She started to hula hoop with the kids and in joined other vendors and friends. I was torn – dutifully stay at the table to talk to people or grab one of those hoops and give it a twirl? I felt a little self conscious at the idea of trying it out; I hadn’t hula hooped since grade school.
The allure of the giggling kids and other adults laughing as they tried out the activity won out. I picked up a hoop that looked about my size, flipped it over my head and gave it swing to the left and started moving to keep it going around my body. I was definitely rusty and the hoop kept losing its place around my middle, but with a few pointers from Jennifer and an avid hooper, Karen, I started to get the hang of it.
I found myself grinning, laugh a little at my silly mistakes and engaging with the kids and adults around me. It was fun to be active and learning something new. It is an infectious activity; different people of varying ages came to us to try out the hoops throughout the evening, and learn about our organization.
Often after tabling at public event I feel spent. I was curious to find, however, as I drove home that evening I had this elated energy and a smile on my face. I also had a new anticipation – when could I hula hoop again?
Check out our picture in The Message