Energy

It sparks an excitement, I think, in our staff. Many of our staff actually, who are working the event, and work the entire day, they dress up themselves. They're excited to be in that space. They're excited to be talking to this different audience.

So for me this was an entirely new experience. I had never actually been to a Comic-Con before and I'm nerd culture-adjacent, this was a little bit out of my wheelhouse so I was really excited and I got there first thing on Saturday and stood in line and there was a line of people outside the door and lots of jostling, and that was fun just to absorb the energy of the people who were there, especially that first wave has got to be pretty hardcore.

my connection to the parade previously had been me being stationary, the parade moving past me and seeing how everybody interacts with it. But now it's seeing that the entire length of the parade is completely involved and the audience is very into it all the way through from start to finish. Talking with some of the volunteers afterwards, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience, I think a little more so than everybody expected, and a lot of that was due to the fact that the crowd was very receptive to it.

I can tell you just from years of experience and from being in different settings and situations. The classroom experience can be great. A special performance can be great, but something where the stage has been set, the atmosphere, the excitement, if you put yourself in a parade setting, you're hearing bands, you're seeing horses, you're watching young people dance, you have people dressed up and ready to go. I mean, everybody's wearing crazy red, white and blue everything, and funny things in their hair and hats and eyes. And people are there to celebrate. So, yes, there is that element of enthusiasm and excitement and celebration that is already there for you and to be able to have that and add to it and feel it, you pull from that as part of a parade as a performer. You pull from that energy and it only gives you more. It builds up your own energy to throw it out back out at the crowd. So, it all feeds on each other. And yes, it's something that you don't maybe necessarily think about as you're building a parade for a float. You're very focused on the result itself, product, the people and place. Just making sure you've got tape and poles and banners and all those things that go into it, so you're very detail oriented. But you kind of forget about the energy that's already there, that you didn't bring, but you're adding to it, you're taking from it and you're giving as much as you can back out. And that in itself is a wonderful element to showcase something that a lot of people might think science is stuffy, not full of highs and lows, not celebratory and yet, here we are. And people are cheering and we're all excited and we can't wait to share when people can't wait to hear and see and be fascinated and be part of it, and to, especially for the kids, cheer them on, which I am sure can only be a boost in what they've done and what they continue to do as their students. So, yeah, there is that element that may not exist in other places where you bring science, too. To have that there and to be part of it and to use that is really magical.

The exuberance and excitement of the volunteers was also something really good to see. I talked with several members of the volunteer crew, and all of them were enthused to the point of vibrating about what they were doing. And that does not have to be the case; you can be conscripted into an event you don't care about, but they weren't. And so I think that that sense of, again, conviviality within the float itself, the clearly positive interactions the walkers were having with audience members, people exclaiming with delight when they put on glasses, it brought much more happiness than I would ever have anticipated for a float.

So we have our chair of our volunteer committee, co-chair of the volunteer committee organized the volunteers for this particular event. And her daughter, who is on the spectrum, accompanied her and assisted her in checking in volunteers, et cetera. My understanding is that the parents are very protective of their kids and rightfully so, but this is probably the closest that Mary Margaret could get to ... She's a high school student, by the way. Could get to what a club scene might look and feel like. And Mary Margaret [inaudible] she was on the float, and she danced as if no one was watching for the entire parade. And when I mean dance, she danced. Again, creating space for her to be whatever she wanted to be that night, which I thought was ... We're proud of that as well.

what was different from the parade event versus other outreach activities that we've been involved in, as it relates to situated engagement is that there's an energy there that I haven't experienced in any other event in our community and I go to a lot of events, festivals, other parades, but this particular parade in the center of our city with tens of thousands of people. And when I recall two videos that I've watched of people from the top end of our flow looking down to the masses, that was such a... It just brought chills to me just thinking about those people. And us shooting t-shirts out with t-shirt guns and handing out the refraction glasses and them wanting more and more and more and all I could think of was playing a song for the DJ. And I don't know, it was just an amazing experience. That energy there is one thing that makes it different.