Volunteer Wrangler c'est moi

Wrangling vollies is my calling. My new job title is Volunteer Coordinator for Festivals and Events, City of Burnaby. It’s very part-time – auxiliary, in fact, therefore subject to indefinite suspension at any moment. Who knows if this gig will last more than six months, but impermanent as it may be, this feels like a milestone in my long and erratic curriculum vitae.

The Festivals and Events team cooks up mischief in a yellow heritage house adjacent to the Shadbolt Arts Centre. My commute is a flat blackberry-laden 12-km ride on the Central Valley Greenway to Deer Lake Park: home to coyotes, truculent geese, and the occasional black bear.

Right now we are bearing down on our peak summer event: Burnaby Blues + Roots Festival on August 12th. Featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Allison Russell, among others. We are expecting 9,000 guests. For the first time in this festival’s long history there will be no admission charge (in past tickets have been around $50). Why free, now? I am told the change is because the City wants to bring this event in line with all its other productions: Burnaby Blooms (a spring celebration), Classical Weekend, Canada Day, etc. – all of which have no admission charge. Of course there are downstream economic benefits to providing free cultural programming — in community cohesion, crime reduction, mental and physical health, intercultural and intergenerational harmony — but the dollar figures are pure speculation. What is true is that it’s a brave municipal gamble – ironically appropriate, given that Festival funding comes from City casino revenues. I get to be part of this grand alchemical experiment, opening the gates to everyone without financial barrier. As for the 9,000 free wristbands, well, it’s a crapshoot. We don’t know how it’ll all roll out but we are oh so curious.

My piece of the puzzle is to manage the volunteer force. There will be around 70 vollies for this event, and they are a mixed bag of nuts. Some are super-keen bright-eyed teenagers, some are laconic phone-focused teenagers (with whip-smart young brains). Some local artists, musicians, neighbourhood dog-walkers. Recent immigrants, refugees, multi-generational land-owners. Auntie-niece and husband-wife and father-son and best-friend-of-30-yrs combos. Wise kind seniors and crusty entitled seniors. People who can help, and people who need help – because supporting each other is also part of the volunteers’ job, and it will be part of the experience they have innocently signed up for. The only thing they have in common is that they have stepped forward to work, for reasons other than money. It is inherently anti-capitalist. Who knew being a civil servant could feel so subversive.

Come Festival day, my vollies will fasten wristbands and direct lineups and help children paint murals and assist people in wheelchairs. They will be eyes on the ground, vibe-keepers, and welcoming faces. They will work hard, and they will work for free. Removing money from the human equation means that they must be rewarded for their work in other ways. I can offer them snacks and shwag but the main currency is less tangible: they make connections, they learn skills, they gain confidence. The lingering aftermath of the pandemic years and the spiral of economic disparity has thrown our sense of self-worth into chaos. Many of us – me included – desperately need a job to do and a place to be. It is a vital spiritual nutrient. In the famous phrase of Khalil Gibran – work is love made visible.

This past week two of my former vollies reported back that they were offered new opportunities, for which I had given them references: one as an art instructor, and one gaining admission to a college aviation program. What greater service can I offer, then to clasp my hands and boost a foot up to the next rung? Who knows how high they will climb, or who they will raise up along the way.

Back in my rave-producer days I wrote an article called How Fun For Free Can Save the World. I still believe that is true. Fun for free, free fun for freedom. Working for free is good living. I have the best job in the world.