Mum's the Word

This weekend I took time out from quilting to participate in my P.E.O. chapter's annual fundraiser.  P.E.O. is a Philanthropic Educational Organization and Chapter DN has sold mums each fall to raise money for the scholarship programs we support.  It involves asking friends if they'd like to add some fall color to their yard by buying mums and then delivering the mums to them.

Over the years, my chapter has developed a proven system for assisting with the unloading of mums from the Elsbury's truck and sorting them into groups for each P.E.O. sister who sold mums.  Each of us then delivers the mums to our loyal customers.

This year, however, there were a few wrinkles in that system.  The originally scheduled time for Elsbury's to deliver the mums was 12 noon on Friday.  At 9 a.m. Friday morning they called to say the mums would be delivered at 9:45 a.m.  I called those I knew who had volunteered to assist with the unloading to inform them of the time change and hoped for the best.

This truck is full of mums to be unloaded.  LOTS of mums!

The second wrinkle - well, see if you can guess by looking at the picture below. 

These mums are actually three different colors.  Can you tell which is which?  We couldn't either!  The back row has some that are bronze-orange and some yellow!  The ones in the front are lavendar.   Fortunately, they had been loaded onto the carts in color groupings more or less and there were individual tags in each mum.  But looking at the colors on the tags was sometimes misleading - or how the bronze-orange and yellow mums got intermingled.   And while you might think the taller patch of mums in the back row was all one color, that was where the yellows and bronze-orange mums were mixed up.

Each year, there is usually one color with buds so tight you can't tell what color it is.  But this year, virtually NONE of the buds were blossoming.  Okay, there were a few of the red mums that had slightly opened.  Apparently, many varieties of mums don't start blooming until the weather starts to cool down.  And with the hot weather we've had all fall, the mums were still waiting for the right time.  To those in my chapter who have wished for mums that haven't opened yet --- we'll let YOU do the unloading and sorting next year!

We finally got the mums unloaded and sorted with some expert assistance from Michael, Laura's son who has helped us unload mums since he was first able to walk.

Ellen, Laura and Michael were troopers in unloading the mums.  These are yellow, white and red mums.  Can't you tell???

The third wrinkle was a mix-up in the number of mums needed.  No matter how we try, there always seems to be some glitch in pulling the numbers together.  Being a numbers person, I thought it would be easy to sort out but I have to admit I was struggling Friday.  Perhaps the 3 hours sleep Thursday night had something to do with it.  I was up making ribbons for the Columbus Star Quilters upcoming quilt show after having gotten my repaired sewing machine back on Wednesday.

The fourth wrinkle was a mix-up in the color of additional mums I thought were needed for one order.  I asked for an additional 11 white mums when I should have asked for 11 YELLOW mums.  The new owners of Elsbury's were wonderful to work with and allowed me to trade the white mums for yellow mums.  Problem solved.  By the way, Millie's Cafe located at Elsbury's has great food.  I can highly recommend the pulled pork sandwich - best I've ever eaten.

Eventually, we got the mums sorted and the right colors in the right groupings.  We sold a total of 474 mums this year which means that somewhere close to $1400.  As much as I was pulling out my hair during the sorting and resorting, for me this is a great way to connect with friends, provide them lovely mums, and raise a significant amount of money that can assist women in pursuing their educational dreams.

We always seem to have extra mums and due to a mixup somewhere along the line.  There were lots of extras this year.  We also always seem to need the extras and I'm happy to report that every last one of them has now found a happy home somehwere other than on my lawn.

Now all we need is rain - lots of rain.

Finally, I think we need a new award this year.  The Best Dressed Mum Deliverer award goes to Debbie and her husband Chris.  They showed up Friday evening in their dress clothes to pick up their mums.  To top that off, Debbie stopped by after church on Sunday to get some of the extra mums for another person who asked for some.  How classy is that? 

Cheers!
Margaret