“What does this say?” Kiera asked pointing to the top of a notepad. It was Saturday and we were sitting in Sunni’s office at the Chamber getting ready for the Corks and Caps event. I was steadily cutting out menus and Kiera was busy writing notes to her Aunt Sunni.
I glanced to the top of the paper and read it to her, “I totally need to…” I looked at her puzzled little face and explained, “It’s a to do list, baby.”
Understanding passed over her face as she looked over the paper. “I’m going to scratch it out on mine,” she said as she proceeded to scribble it out and write the word love on the notepad.
After a moment, she glanced around Sunni’s desk and moved a piece of paper to reveal a very long to do list. Before I could get on to her for shuffling Sunni’s papers around, she said with horror in her voice, “What is this one?”
I gently smiled as I took it from her and laid it back on the desk. “That’s Aunt Sunni’s to do list, baby. There is a lot of stuff we have to do for the event tonight.”
She carefully studied the list for a minute before declaring indignantly, “Well, I’m going to mark something off her list!”I grinned at her protective act and explained how we couldn’t just mark something off unless it was already done. She nodded in understanding and from that moment on, she did extra little things for Sunni. I delivered several notes to Sunni and even a map that she had drawn in case Sunni needed it.
That wasn’t the only act of compassion, I witnessed from her throughout our crazy and hectic day.
It takes a lot of work to pull off events. We had helped several nights the previous week with decorations and then came back out on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. for the long haul, not getting home until 1:00 a.m. Sunday. Kiera was ecstatic to go and work the event, and that is important to us.
We want her to have fun but also learn about helping and volunteering in the community. One of the highlights for her was decorating the train so that people could ride it.
In fact, at one point, she had a total of 18 party favors to hand out to the first ones on the train. For a brief time, she considered charging people for the party favors, and then she decided against it before we had to talk her out of it.
Kiera worked so hard the entire day. There were times, she played and ran around but she also helped set up for the event. I’m so thankful for my Chamber family and the volunteers who helped. Not one person ever complained about Kiera “helping,” even if it slowed them down for a minute.
When the event started, she headed off to the train with her Daddy to begin transporting people to the event grounds. During the following hours, she played games, visited with different friends, helped check the trash, painted, and so much more.
At one point, late in the evening, she started to get tired and cried for a few minutes. Aaron and I felt horrible. I offered to have her Grandmommy pick her up and take her home. She adamantly refused. She and I walked around the event for a few minutes until she decided she wanted to ride the train.
Kiera and Aaron headed off to the train and after a brief ride; she was ready to go again. Thanks to our volunteers, Aaron and I were able to sit down with her for a bit. She and I went over to the airbrushed tattoo artist and got our first “tats” as she kept calling them. I have no idea where she picked that up.
After following the magician around for a bit, it was time for us to begin the clean-up and tear down portion of the evening. Kiera didn’t bat an eye. She walked over to a table with me and watched for a minute as I started to clear the trash. I dropped the pile of discarded plates in the trashcan and turned back to the table in time to see her grab more plates off the table. She scrunched her nose up as she carried it to the trashcan, dropped it in and headed back to the table for more.
She helped break down tables and attempted to roll them to where we were stacking them. Nothing was too hard or too big for her.
At one point during the night she and I were walking by the photo booth. I glanced over and saw a cute couple laughing and posing on the couch as they pretended to drink from the gold glitter wine bottles that held the props. All of a sudden, Kiera made a break and headed for them. I hastily changed my direction as well. “Kiera!” I said.
She glanced to me as she stopped in front of the couple and the person taking their picture. “Come here, baby.” I motioned for her to move over to me.
Sighing, she came to stand by me before pointing at the couple on the couch. “But look!” she exclaimed obviously appalled. “They are holding the gold bottles and those are just to hold the decorations!!”
I refrained from calling her a photo booth tyrant and explained that it was ok, they were just having fun and if they wanted them in the picture it was not a problem. I’m pretty sure she huffed, but she followed me to our next task without a fuss.
I’m thinking that she may be in the running to start heading up events soon. Although, we still have to work a little bit on her diplomacy.
Pictured above are Kiera and Rowonna McNeely at the Corks and Caps event. Photo courtesy Marshal McIntosh.
Rowonna McNeely is a graphic artist for Willie’s T’s Screenprint & Embroidery. She is a mother of a five-year-old girl and step mother of two adult girls. Her crazy life includes a dog, Sloane and psychotic cat, Gracie. Both females. She is married to her prince, who is outnumbered by the opposite gender.
