Harvest Day Challenge At The Maryville Farmer

Harvest Day Challenge at the Maryville Farmer’s Market On October 31, 2009 The Harvest Day Challenge was an event that grew out of an assignment from Dr. Carol Costello’s Event planning class. The parameters of this assignment began with the requirement to volunteer for three hours at an approved event. A group of my peers, Celeste McCracken, Alexandra Haye, Dana Richardson, Sarah Swiney, Angela Sebby, and I came to our first meeting with Dr Ann Fairhurst, the sponsor for the Maryville Farmer’s Market and professor at the University of Tennessee. At that time, she offered us both a challenge and an opportunity to plan and organize the event ourselves. I, without much regard to my peers, who I had just met, voted to accept the challenge of planning and organizing this event. Little did I know the extent to which I would grow through this experience. In past, the events I have planned, I was lead by pure trial and error, and some instinct. However, in planning this event, I attempted to follow the principles laid out by Dr. Costello. I discovered by following some basic principles, a comprehensive model that removed a great deal of the insecurity that accompany the chaotic trial and error methods I usually plow through with. These include, principle of theme and purpose, communication and marketing, flexibility and finally gratitude and manners. Without regaling every minute incident, I will attempt to share my experiences of growth associated with the principles I’ve just listed. The principle of theme and purpose is first, because this is the twine that holds everything together. The principle of theme and purpose establishes, first, a purpose for the event. The purpose for an event is the reason you are organizing it and defines the harvest you are seeking to gather. The purposes of our event included enjoyment, education and networking for the outcomes of developing a relationship between the elementary students of Blount County with the local farmers, to expose the children and give them a since of where fruits and vegetables actually comes from. This was the purpose of our group. However, everyone involved in an event does not necessarily have the same purpose. For example, different featuring participants such as the Maryville Drum Corp. had a purpose to have an audience, Chef Tony had a purpose to gain exposure within the community, and the teacher’s purpose was to be a public promoter of the values of their school. The vendors purpose was promote a since of community, both, to support the local elementary school’s need to nutritionally educate their students as well as gain new customers. As event planners we brought all of these purposes together with the theme “Harvest Day Challenge” this theme was further enhanced by being held on Halloween, a day that sharply contrasts against eating healthy foods. Normally this probably would not work, however, with the obesity epidemic facing children today; we offered a perfect opportunity for elementary schools to promote health in the fun format resembling traditional American heritage styles of days gone by. When it comes to communications, there are two main roots. The first root must reach out to the target audience which we call marketing. The second root must branch out to every member of the event planning team which I will call planner’s relations. Without the ability of event planners to reach their target audience and each other, no event can succeed. In this event I was assigned to target the market, the Blount county elementary schools. My approach was to create a form letter and email it to every elementary school in Blount County and wait for a contact or an RSVP (I have attached a copy of this letter to this report). Out of the twenty or so contacts

sent out, I received with delight 4 responses. It wasn’t until this happened that we knew to move forward with our plans. This brings us to the second root of communications, planner’s relations. Our group, having never worked together, successfully faced some issues. There were two main things that we did to overcome those issues. The number one thing we did was have the courage to say when there was a problem and then actually listen to the response of why things were happening the way they were, and then we all adjusted accordingly. The second, and just as important, was to keep and publish open records of what had been done and what still needed to be done. This left the door open for anyone with creative inputs and time to support any area still in development. This professional openness helped to make it clear that the success and failure of the event would reflect on us as a group and that no one individual could possibly take credit or blame for the outcome of the event. This proved to be the right approach, because on the day of the event, everyone worked hard, had fun and supported each other’s efforts for the success of the event. Flexibility: Is there ever an event that does not produce a basket full of flexibility. The rule seems to be; the poorer you plan the more flexible you better be. Yet, even the best plans can’t foresee all acts of God. As meeting planners of the Harvest Day Event, we generated lists of details upon lists of details, but when the event day came so did the rain. Farmers being the hardy people that they are, hold the farmers market rain or shine. What we didn’t know as planners was how well we marketed our event, who would come out in this rain? I’m happy and surprised to report that the Maryville Drum Corps. came, Chef Tony came and predictably, the Master Gardeners and farm vendors came. But would the targeted teachers and students come? And we also had to ask, how much of our plans could be executed in the rain? On the spot, we adjusted to the situation and decided to follow through with the event even if we had to recruit vendors to compete in the challenges. We then modified the challenges to fit under a tent and scratched the Farmer’s Golf Tournament. This left us with 5 challenges, Potato Peel, using real potatoes, Worm Dig, using real pumpkins and soil, Bite the Apple, using real apples, Milk the Glove using water instead of milk, and Seed Spitting using real seeds. All our challenges were a kinetic experience with natural fruits and vegetables and were recycled to compost and chicken feed. To everyone’s astonishment, all school representatives showed up but one. But then an extra teacher, who just happened to be there, moved in to take the missing school’s place. However, very few children came. With the rain and the H1N1 this was appropriate. Therefore, we flexibly made an opportunity by allowing the children to take part by holding the milk cups in the Milk the Glove challenge. Clearly, the teachers and the children enjoyed the Harvest Day challenge. Enjoyment was one of our purposes. Another one of our purposes was met when the children, each, participating in a scavenger hunt that involved asking farmers to answer harvest related questions given them at the challenge site. Our purpose to help build networks within the community was met when everyone involved chose to come together to meet the challenge, come rain or shine. The quality of those networks rests on the quality of work and hospitality of the event planners and their ability to handle situations with hardy flexibility. Gratitude and manners is probably the principle Dr Costello has emphasized the most during her lectures. I generally see myself as a person who naturally has both. However, general manners and gratitude is not enough to move people beyond a general response to support an event. Event planners must make a conscious plan to show favor and gratitude to all participant, guests and volunteers, as well as each other. Event planners must know how to greet everyone with a proper

greeting and hand shake. I approached the task to make a greeting by first sending out an introductory email (attached). When the targeted market responded with interest, I confirmed them by responding as soon as possible with an enthusiastic welcome to the event and let them know when to expect a personal visit from me. One week prior to the event I purposely set out to reestablish the original excitement for the purpose of the event by taking each participant a thank you gift in advance of the event. Having some understanding of my target market, I created a simple exaggerated skeptical in order to help the teachers have a way to initiate excitement in their school by taking advantage of Halloween. I signed in at the school office dressed as a golfer/farmer outfit. I brought with me a basket of fruits and vegetables to help emphasize the purpose of the event. I also greeted the teachers with an American hand shake and introduced myself. I quickly thanked them for representing their school and on the behalf of the Maryville Farmer’s Market gave them a Maryville’s Farmer’s Market t-shirt. I am convinced that the extra effort on my part, stressed in every lecture by Dr Costello, I showed gratitude in advance and impacted the teachers to come represent their school, even in the rain. In organizing this event I deliberately set out to systematically sow the principles discussed by Dr. Costello in lecture. I found that by doing this, the marketed targets and featured guests of the event, related to us in a professional manner and reacted with confidence that the event we had laid out to them was able to be performed by our team. I am grateful for the opportunity to have practiced these principles, but there is one principle I have not mentioned that is probably the bottom line of an event. I didn’t mention it until the end, because this principle only sprouts it’s head at the end of planning and blooms on the day of the event. Over and over on the day of the event the reality of this principle which states that if you want a professionally planned event, planning the small things is just as important as planning the big things. Let me say it this way, what good are signs if there is no tape to hang them with; where are you going to put the trash if you didn’t bring trash bags; what are you going to write with if you don’t have a pen; how can you have a golf tournament if you didn’t double check for golf clubs? Ah! We are back to flexibility.