Aug 20

Let the Chips Fall Where They May

Using Your Talents and Gifts

Small towns have to be resourceful when developing events to bring in visitors. Building events around local attractions is a good start. The event itself brings the people in and the local attraction earns some free publicity and hopefully some additional patrons.

My hometown is just a few miles from a state game preserve. Buffalo, elk, and many other species of wildlife reside there. Every summer during the county fair, a buffalo chip throwing contest was a favorite event. That’s right - people would pay to hurl a piece of dried buffalo manure through the air to see if they could throw it the farthest.

The event was held in the rodeo arena so clean up wasn’t an issue, but someone had to gather the chips.

I don’t know how they were gathered officially but my imagination says there were two guys armed with a wheelbarrow and a rake wandering around the game preserve poking at piles of buffalo dung to see which ones would be ready by fair time.

Many years ago, I was working for a manufacturer who was trying to make online ordering possible for their dealer network. This meant every part used to manufacture the products had to be documented. This equaled somewhere around 26,000 pieces that needed to be photographed and cataloged. A group of interns were hired to complete the task over the summer.

The interns were students from the local high school

and kids of employees. It was a tedious job but essential for the company to be able to offer the service. I only had one grumbler who didn’t “get” why the interns had to do the boring work. He wanted to do something fun. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that “fun” in a manufacturing plant usually resulted in someone losing a valuable body part. Our production manager could only count to eight and a half on his fingers and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t say losing fingers was fun.

I sometimes wonder what happened to the grumbler. Did he ever find a fun job?

It would have to be one where he could delegate the chip gathering in order to make his vision possible.