Volunteering as a Lightbringer at Staro Rīga 2013
Since Staro Rīga is one of the largest events in Latvia in November, the highlight of the month along with Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia celebration, and since I have always attended this festival as a visitor staring in awe at the beautifully illuminated buildings, this year I finally decided to participate by actually helping the organizers. Although mostly volunteers over the age of 21 were needed and I had next to no options out of which to choose, I took the challenge of doing one thing I despise as a pedestrian: stormed the streets of Riga offering a Staro Riga brochure to every person walking by.
I got to Riga Congress Centre shortly before 5 p.m. and met with other volunteers at Riga 2014 office. There we were all given blue Aerodium overalls decorated with Christmas lights. To be honest, I hoped to have more lights on my costume than just around my waist and I would have appreciated if they were not exactly fuchsia, but overall that was not a problem. Also, we were given orange Riga 2014 bags containing - if I am taking a wild guess - about three hundred brochures, maps with a route that we were supposed to follow and then we were ready to set off.
Together with Madara, a girl who studies Pedagogy and also was a Staro Rīga volunteer for the first time, decided to take the longest route first. We did not, however, follow the map entirely, since they were approximate and tough to read, especially considering that neither of us knew the city centre like the back of our hands. We walked along Kr.Valdemāra street, turned by the Faculty of Chemistry, and came back to the centre along Brīvības street. Since it was only 5 p.m. but the actual lights were scheduled to turn on only at 6 p.m., we did not offer the brochures at once. I was not sure how I should approach people, but when the simple phrase "Labvakar! Staro Rīga!" ("Good evening! Staro Rīga!") whilst smiling and giving the brochure came to me, it somehow seemed appropriate, so I used it almost the whole time.
At first Madara offered the brochures without a greeting, but soon enough she borrowed my phrase for it was rather effective. We got only back to the Freedom Monument, when we were almost out of brochures and therefore - in need to head back to the Congress Centre. Ironically, considering that one in ten to twenty people did not accept the brochure offered, I gave my last booklet to a woman in Bastejkalns but did not have one to give her friend who asked for it.
After refilling our bags with brochures, we headed towards The Old City, walking in the other direction along Kr.Valdemāra street. Bus station turned out to be a very productive place for giving off the brochures, but by the Latvian National Theatre we were delayed by a Russian janitor for a couple of minutes. After Madara gave him the booklet, he said something in Russian that she did not understand, but I did not hear. He reproached her of not knowing Russian, arguing that every person living in Latvia must know Russian due to the large number of Russians in our country. I replied him in Russian hoping that it would satisfy him, but he actually started stuttering in Latvian expressing his opinion about Latvian women marrying Russians and having bilingual children. It was ... interesting to say the least.
In comparison to the part of the city centre we walked around before, the Old City was not as crowded as I anticipated. And although quite a lot of people were crowding the squares by the illuminated buildings, almost all of them already had the brochures and, logically, did not want another. Since we still had a lot of booklets, we walked a bit in the direction of Riga Central Station, then - also along Tērbatas street. When we ran out of the brochures, we again returned to the Congress Centre, and in total gave off three bags full of Staro Rīga booklets. In fact, as the Health application in my phone showed, in those five hours that we walked along the streets of Riga we went the distance of 21.79 kilometres! It is half of the way to my hometown, Jelgava! No wonder I was exhausted afterwards...
After the activity I can say that the diversity of people's reactions amazed me! Yes, some were as reluctant to accept the brochure as I usually am, and passed by without blinking an eye. Others intended to ignore my offer probably regarding it as yet another cheap-product advertising, but stopped at the mention of Staro Rīga. And then there were people who not only simply took the brochure, but did it with a smile and gratitude. Some asked for a few more copies for friends and family, and some, seeing what we were doing, even caught up with us to ask for a brochure. I was surprised how every single brochure given away delighted me and how interaction with those skeptical people, such as usually myself, had the opposite effect.
(Sadly, I had my phone inside the overalls, wherefore it was not easy to take it out, not to mention that mostly I was occupied by doing what I was supposed to do and scarcely had as much as a moment of respite.
That is not really fault of the organizers, because they gave us coupons for coffee. I simply forgot about them.)
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My reflections
Accepting the challenge of doing not only something entirely new to me, but also something I despise as a pedestrian required quite a lot of courage, especially since I was assured that most people's attitude towards those who walk the streets giving off advertisements is negative. Even if the society's interest in Staro Rīga on the first day of the festival might have played an important role in increasing people's willingness to accept the brochure, I was proved wrong. Many of the people took the booklet with a genuine smile on their face, muttered a truly delightful 'Thanks!' or even caught up with us to ask for a brochure. My own happiness about every brochure I gave away surprised me, and throughout the evening, I think, I smiled more than during the whole week. Of course, there were also people who did not accept the booklet, and although I cannot blame them, ignorance on their part naturally did not make me feel very good. Still, this activity provided the opportunity to explore the diversity of the society and also interact with a lot of people.
I got to collaborate with a pleasant girl from University of Latvia, since we walked the streets of Riga together. In addition, I met a lot of Russian people and even some English-speaking tourists, and got involved in situations where I could apply my knowledge of both of these languages. Many people were asking questions about the festival itself, not only the road to one or another illuminated object, and I was glad I was familiar with the main events, such as the Aerodium show by the river.
The organization, however, was not as good as I or some visitors expected, since at 6 p.m. many objects in the centre of Riga were not yet illuminated as was promised. I received some objections about that, and had to do my best to cheer the disappointed people up, explain the possible reasons for the delay, and also apologize on the organizer's behalf. In fact, I do not think the brochures were any help, since the maps in them were also very approximate and printed on dark paper. Working as a volunteer, I did not see every illuminated object myself, and the booklets were so uninformative that I was rather surprised about some of the amazing events I did not even know about until seeing photos on the Internet the following day. Of course, I had three more nights to go check them out and I did just that.
Overall, regardless of some loopholes on the organizers' account, for the volunteers everything was provided and I enjoyed the evening. This was a challenging, but undeniably good experience, and - although I would think twice before applying to anything similar again - from now on I will most probably accept brochures from other volunteers at other events, since I am now aware of the happiness such a simple gesture can evoke.
Accepting the challenge of doing not only something entirely new to me, but also something I despise as a pedestrian required quite a lot of courage, especially since I was assured that most people's attitude towards those who walk the streets giving off advertisements is negative. Even if the society's interest in Staro Rīga on the first day of the festival might have played an important role in increasing people's willingness to accept the brochure, I was proved wrong. Many of the people took the booklet with a genuine smile on their face, muttered a truly delightful 'Thanks!' or even caught up with us to ask for a brochure. My own happiness about every brochure I gave away surprised me, and throughout the evening, I think, I smiled more than during the whole week. Of course, there were also people who did not accept the booklet, and although I cannot blame them, ignorance on their part naturally did not make me feel very good. Still, this activity provided the opportunity to explore the diversity of the society and also interact with a lot of people.
I got to collaborate with a pleasant girl from University of Latvia, since we walked the streets of Riga together. In addition, I met a lot of Russian people and even some English-speaking tourists, and got involved in situations where I could apply my knowledge of both of these languages. Many people were asking questions about the festival itself, not only the road to one or another illuminated object, and I was glad I was familiar with the main events, such as the Aerodium show by the river.
The organization, however, was not as good as I or some visitors expected, since at 6 p.m. many objects in the centre of Riga were not yet illuminated as was promised. I received some objections about that, and had to do my best to cheer the disappointed people up, explain the possible reasons for the delay, and also apologize on the organizer's behalf. In fact, I do not think the brochures were any help, since the maps in them were also very approximate and printed on dark paper. Working as a volunteer, I did not see every illuminated object myself, and the booklets were so uninformative that I was rather surprised about some of the amazing events I did not even know about until seeing photos on the Internet the following day. Of course, I had three more nights to go check them out and I did just that.
Overall, regardless of some loopholes on the organizers' account, for the volunteers everything was provided and I enjoyed the evening. This was a challenging, but undeniably good experience, and - although I would think twice before applying to anything similar again - from now on I will most probably accept brochures from other volunteers at other events, since I am now aware of the happiness such a simple gesture can evoke.
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