“Governor Higgins asked me to make some appearances with him for his campaign. While we talked, he mentioned that he, Senator Dixon, and Bev Mass would be doing rallies at different campuses this weekend. I suggested that you help them. He got excited and said you’d be perfect for something like that.”
“I should call Brook Davis and see if she’d help out as well,” I said.
There was no use fighting it. I’d as much as promised I would help the governor. He had ties to my grandad, and he helped when I had my problem last fall. Our families had been intertwined for many years. My grandad Davey had actually been Kurt’s mentor. It was my turn to step up.
“I’m sure the governor’s staff would welcome any help you can give. I’ll confirm with them, and you can get in contact to work out the details.”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Betty Higgins and I are doing the women’s luncheon circuit.”
That made it a slam dunk. I would much rather go to a campus rally than have lunches with women’s groups.
When I got off the phone with my grandma, I called Brook’s dad. I didn’t want to give her a chance to turn me down. I called the house phone.
“Hey, David, what’s up?” Brook answered.
“I need to talk to your dad,” I said.
“Why?”
If it were me, I would have just handed the phone to my dad. I never understood girls and their need to question everything.
“I need his advice on something,” I said.
“What something?” she asked.
I got the feeling Brook didn’t trust me, but I guess I didn’t blame her since I’d never before called and asked to speak to Ian.
When I explained what my grandma had roped me into, Brook agreed that he’d really like to help with something like this. Boy, was he excited. I hit him with the life-experience angle, and I suddenly had an assistant, one Miss Brook Davis. In fact, I put him in charge and suggested that I would do whatever was needed. I could tell from his enthusiasm that neither Brook nor I would have to do much of anything. He agreed to talk to the governor’s staff and provide suggestions. It was the perfect use of delegation: find a motivated person with a passion and point them in the right direction. I felt pretty good about myself.
◊◊◊ Monday February 8
On the way to school, I got a call from Caryn.
“I wanted to let you know that they’ve started construction on the strip mall. I talked to Devin Range, and he didn’t want the car back, so I suggested that they donate it to the Booster Club.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said.
“Mrs. Sullivan is sending someone over to pick it up today. Did you get it cleaned out over the weekend?”
“Yes, and I’m going to miss that car,” I moaned.
“Get over it. You can get almost any car you want to replace it.”
She was right, but did I really need another car? I already had the Jeep. A guy can only drive one car at a time. It was probably best to give it some time and see how I felt in a week or so.
“I do need something bigger that my nanny can drive, something big enough to haul all the kids, including my brother’s kids, if I have to. I want it nice, and I don’t want a minivan.”
“Okay. I’ll call Mrs. Sullivan and see what they have. I’ll text you pictures, and you can decide if you want to go look at any of them,” she offered.
My mind took off in another direction.
“Hey, I talked to the director of the homeless place last week. He mentioned a GoFundMe website for our class project. Do we have them for our other charities?”
“No, but that’s a great idea. I’ll get Megan working on it,” she said. “What’s your project?”
“We have three. One is a find-a-friend-for-lunch app. Another is to build tables for the outdoor area next to the lunchroom. The final project is to collect household items for the homeless. The director suggested that some people might not want to bring things in, but would donate money; that’s why the GoFundMe site,” I shared.
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“Sure.”
“Don’t do a long, drawn-out deal. You don’t want to have to worry about setting up collection boxes. I was involved in a similar project when I was in college, but for toys for kids at Christmastime. It was a huge pain, and we ended up losing a lot of toys because the donation locations weren’t secured. I would suggest you make it an event and do it all at once. Set up a big truck and challenge everyone to fill it. It would make for a nice article for the local paper and help the charity with awareness of the problem,” Caryn suggested.
I knew there was a reason I hired her. That was great advice. I could see how doing a onetime event was better than having to deal with it over a month or longer. I thought it was a worthy cause, but I didn’t want to mess with it more than I had to.
“Oh, I almost forgot. My grandma volunteered me to help with Governor Higgins’ campaign. When you talk to Frank next, could you mention I might need some talking points?”
“When is it?” she asked.
“I, uh, don’t know,” I admitted, and she laughed at me.
I explained how I’d gotten Ian Davis to figure it out for me and gave her Ian’s phone number.
