Stuffing the Bags!

One of my favorite events leading up to Bike to Work Day is the bag stuffing party. That's when volunteers join us to put items in the musette bags and sort them out to go to the various energizer stations. It's a busy time and a lot of fun. We have a number of hardy volunteers who have been there multiple times.

The first bag stuffing I was at was in 2006. It was also Corinne's first as the new ED. It may actually have been the first bag stuffing event. Some hardy board members and volunteers gathered in the back yard of a board member and, using some card tables and benches, stuffed the bags. It took all day. I'm not sure how the bags were distributed, but I seem to remember them being loaded into a board member's van. There were a lot fewer energizer stations then.

The next year, Sports Basement in Sunnyvale hosted us for the bag stuffing. It took place on a weekend evening as well as the next day, so it probably took eight hours. By this time there were two employees, as well as some volunteers, and we had quite a bit of help from Sports Basement staff.

Since then, Sports Basement, which is also a long-time Bike to Work Day sponsor, has hosted all our bag stuffing events. Each year, there have been more volunteers. This year, there were over 40 volunteers, who stuffed 4500 bags and sorted them into over 100 cartons for the 69 energizer stations. It's a huge job, and we were finished in 2-1/2 hours! Now, that is efficient! We absolutely could not have done this without our great volunteers.