Thanksgiving Celebration with New Brunswick Charter School

Hey Y'all - Ashley here :) I am writing to tell you about our second community service event. This one was not only successful, but so special.

As you might know already, my position at the RutgerZone is manager of Outreach - part of my job is to develop community service/volunteer opportunities for my staff and I to organize and participate in. The RutgerZone is not only a place of employment or a place with games - but it also serves as a learning experience and a stepping stone for the students that work here. Around October I had been playing with the idea of having kids come to the zone for a special event. With the holidays coming up, it was the perfect opportunity to put this idea to reality.

I got in touch with the family coordinator from the New Brunswick Charter School, Ana. I gave her my ideas and vision for the event - to have a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner for children who may not often get a chance to have a full dinner or time to spend with their family. We finally decided it would be best to have whole families come to the event.

Ana and some of the staff at the school nominated about 14 families to come to the event. And what a success it turned out to be. The families arrived on Livingston excited and thrilled - they walked into Livingston Hall to see the entire place decorated with festive decor and food ready to be served. As the RutgersZone staff welcomed them in, you could see the smiles on their faces lighten up - that was only the beginning.

We interacted with the families by joining them for dinner, dancing with the children and playing tag, doing arts and crafts, playing with an oversized parachute, giving out little goodie bags, etc. We even had our manager Adam dress up as Zoney the penguin! The RutgersZone staff really went out of their way to make this event special for the families that attended. I am so proud to have such an amazing staff that is willing to help and make a difference.

Not to be biased but I must say that the biggest hit of the day was the zone. Ice Cream and arcade games and kids is the perfect mix!

The families were so grateful and it was really gratifying to see them so happy. They got to take home pictures of themselves in the Big Red Chair - they were adorable!

As the holidays are here, it became apparent how important it is to step outside yourself and realize all that you have. For these kids, the smallest things we did made the biggest difference. It was an overwhelming feeling to know that we were making an impact on their lives.

Of course the event came with hardwork. My boss Matt and I spent hours upon hours together wracking our brains trying to come up with the best activities and a set schedule for the event. Our hard work paid off. I could not have been more happy with the way the event turned out.

A big THANK YOU to the staff that participated and to our good friend Alisa who was an AMAZING MC/Host for the event.

Thanks to Matt, Becky, Adam, Phylisha, Lisa, Ali, Dominique, Kyle, Alyssa, Tiffany, Sherina, Nicole, Alexandra, Alisa, Bridget :D You guys are amazing!

Our staff was unbelievably great to the kids, to the families, and to each other. Although this was about helping families in need, it also gave our staff a chance to bond with each other and make a difference in our community as a whole.

I am so happy to have the job that I do where I am able to do these sorts of things and look forward to future events!! :)

Pictures are coming!!

--Ashley :P

I know way too many people here right now who I didn't know last year....

As this Thanksgiving holiday rolls around, I notice that people begin to ask one question: What are you thankful for? This simple question takes some people days to answer, because they are thankful for many things. Others take seconds because they know exactly what they are thankful for. I usually answer the question with common things. For example I'm thankful for my family, for life, and for the opportunities afforded to me throughout my life.
Tonight I write this post because I have new things to be thankful for. I have a list of 8 brand new things that I can say I'm thankful for, and that are unique to me. Those 8 things are the 8 different people who have been introduced into my life through this great place we call the RutgersZone. Those people are the 6 other managers who have become my extended family, the crew (yes I'm counting them as 1...so what), and that guy who is overly fascinated with my mother, Matt Ferguson. I'm thankful for all the new people in my life who are all amazing and that I love with all my heart.

Phylisha =)

RUZONE visits the NJ DEVILS- what a trip!

Friday afternoon the entire RutgersZone staff went to visit the Prudential Center and saw the NJ Devils get their first home win of the season! We departed the Zone at 2:45 and rode the bus up to the Prudential Center in Newark. When we arrived, we were able to talk to Will, who works in Marketing, and Joe and Adrienne, who work in Guest Services. They had a lot of great advice about running a business and getting people to your venue. One thing I specifically remembered was the discussion about how people perceive value differently now that the economy has not been so good, and how the Prudential Center staff has worked on different things to make customers' experience excellent. After that, we ate dinner, and then Will gave us a tour of the Prudential Center, which is the coolest building ever! The facility has something for everyone to enjoy at various price ranges, and allows customers to create their own different experiences. I was just impressed by the cushioned seats, which made watching the game much more comfortable. After the tour, we did some team building and brainstorming exercises, then watched the game. Hockey is a very interesting sport, especially when the players fought, and the ushers dancing to "All the Single Ladies"! But when the Devil's won, everyone was excited, and we even got high-fived by the staff members on our way out. Overall, it was a great experience and we got lots of ideas to implement in the Zone!

Hostest with the mostest......

On Wednesday we had our very first guest host for Buzztime Trivia....yayyyyy!!! Elyse from RUPA rocked the mic and entertained everyone in the audience. She hyped up the crowd while wearing her red sequence blazer from the summer orientation game show. As our first guest host she did really amazing and I think she should host again sometime soon (that's a subliminal request for her if she's reading this, lol). Every one of our Buzztime playmakers was being used, meaning we had a full game, which was great. Of course there were obstacles, I mean because this is the RutgersZone. We ran out of tortilla chips so we couldn't serve our usually Spinach Artichoke dip appetizer, so instead we served our pizza sticks. Everyone really loved those because they ate them quicker than a daily vitamin, haha (that's funny right. Right?). Then I was informed earlier in the day that RUPA representatives couldn't be there so I ihad to take care of prize distribution and information collection form the team winners.

The little things didn't bother me because at the end of the night the teams enjoyed themselves. Congrats to EMSOP for winning!

On a different note, as the semester is winding down I am experiencing the stressors of having 3 jobs; RutgersZone, RHA and Student. It gets tough sometimes but it's worth it for the experience in the end. It is helping me make connections and network with important people around campus.

Phylisha (a.k.a Phylifa and Hyli A. Ore) =)

Remember that time...?

So, I probably had just the coolest experience I've ever had associated with this place recently. It was a Friday and we had scheduled and coordinated a private event for a recruitment day with the Women's Basketball team. We had been commissioned to make an amazing events to show the prospective students what it means to be a Scarlet Knight.

To do so, we thought that decorating the space in a sports-themed manner would be very fitting. One of the ways we wanted to showcase our event-planning prowess was to have balloons throughout the space. In order to have blown-up balloons, we had to go out to a big, rusty trailer that has our helium tank in it. When we got there and opened it...it was completely empty. Matt forgot to tell me that he had moved all of the stuff from the trailer into the smaller trailer that was by the original trailer. I was kind of freaking out when I saw the empty trailer.

Eventually, though, we got the Zone completely decorated and it looked great. We had to wait a while for the event to start, as the girls were going through a final information session, but finally we got the event started. It was amazing. All of these great athletes enjoying the space, challenging each other to basketball, parents playing pool. Then, the topping on the sundae was when C. Vivian Stringer walked through the door. It was great to see her enjoying the event. She even told us how great it was and let us get a picture with her (Below). I loved talking with such a coaching legend and even got to joke with her about Iowa (my original home). It was a great event with dozens of happy guests, as well as having the satisfaction of helping Rutgers recruit some more great women's basketball players!

I know. I look like a ghost in the picture because of the flash. Maybe I'll get another one at the next Rutger's Women's Basketball event!

-Adam

November Novelties

So it is Novemberrr! I can't believe how fast this semester has flown by! With a full course load and a dedication to the RutgersZone, it feels like just yesterday we were training for this position. Exciting things have been happening around here as you can tell if you've been keeping up with the blog. We FINALLY HAVE APPS! And boy are they delicious! I could eat the Spinach and Artichoke Dip everyday its yummy yummy :)

Other than that there have been some other exciting things happening for me - The November Community Service Project is fast approaching and yes, I must admit I am getting a little nervous!! We are planning a Thanksgiving Day dinner for families of the New Brunswick Charter School. These families are in need, not only in need for a full and healthy meal, but after meeting with a woman in charge of family coordinating for the school, I also learned that the families are in need of spending time with each other. For some of the families, it is not often that they get to sit down together and have a meal. And even though some families do spend time together, sometimes there is just a lack of connection. Our goal for the dinner is to create a positive dinner and a chance for some family fun. We are going to have a traditional dinner but we are also going to have some arts and crafts activities - drawing hand turkeys, having the children write about what they are thankful for, etc. I'm really looking forward to the event and I hope that each family will be able to take something away from it and remember it for a long time.

I also got the chance to work an event where the women's basketball team was here doing some sort of recruiting thing. It was really fun to meet the players and see them having a good time. It's cool that the zone is a place where we can hold events like that.

I'll be checking in next week to keep you updated with what's happening with the November event - keep your fingers crossed that it is a success!

Also - if you haven't checked out our new and revamped facebook page - do it! http://www.facebook.com/rutgerszone

Until next time,

--Ashley

Day and Night?

So today I worked my first Sunday night shift - which was a lot different than my normal Sunday morning/afternoon shift. It was weird adjusting to the closing procedures instead of the typical morning procedures. Opening makes time go a lot faster while closing seems to lag on. Even though football was on all day (NICE OT WIN, JETS!), time seemed to go by slowly. We had a lot of fun fans in the Zone today who we interacted with, which was fun. But overall - I had great staff with me today so we got a lot of the closing tasks done way before the Zone even closed. Our crew members are really starting to show that they have the tasks down, making it a lot easier at the end of the day. I'm really impressed by how the staff quickly and effectively gets their tasks done. YEAH TEAM! We also have a total of three crew members on duty by the end of the night, which makes clean up easier. Overall, closing was easier, especially because we worked together as a team and got everything done at a reasonable time. Plus, I was more energized since the coffee kicked in way before my shift :)

See you next Sunday for football at the Zone!!!
-Lisa

APPS ARE HERE! (Pauly D voice)

This week we started serving our new appetizers at the Zone. We now have Spinach & Artichoke dip, Soft Pretzels, Pepperoni Pizza Sticks, and "Nachos". Sunday is usually really slow but already today we've sold 3 orders of pretzels and 2 orders of pizza sticks and it's only 2pm! I'm happy we finally have some food because I think it will make more people want to come and hang out. My favorite appetizer so far is the pizza sticks. If I had more than $0.07 on my RU Express I would be devouring an order right now. Also really love the cheese sauce. It's just so delicious! I need to upload a picture soon.

Anywayyy, this morning the Dream Team (aka me and Bridget (aka October Employee of the Month)) opened up the space. I never opened on a Sunday so it was a little different than usual since I had to clean the ice cream case and sanitizer the mug chiller. You learn a new thing everyday. Another crew member was scheduled to work however she never showed up. I called her and left a message before starting my first write up ever. Finally she called back and I learned that she had spoken to Matt about not working two weeks ago and emailed Lisa. The moral of the story is that we still need to improve our communication between employees to have a successful team. The simple miscommunication could have caused the crew member to have unwarranted points, which would not have been a good thing.

Super excited for the Devils game fridayyy!

Ta ta for now,

Broelle

Any soda for 25 cents?

On Friday I had two customers come to the bar and ask for three drinks. It played out like any other order, they asked what types of drinks we had, I showed them our flyer and then they made their decisions. Things started to get weird when one of the customers handed me a dollar for the order. I looked at him oddly. I had to clarify with him that he wanted three drinks. He said yes, and he looked shocked when I told him I would need 2 more dollar bills, He said "But it says here soda costs 25 cents." I quickly looked at the flyer he was referring to and laughed. On our soda flyer at the bottom it says " Cheery or Vanilla Can Be Added To Any Soda For Just 25 cents!" The problem is that the sentence is split up onto 2 lines. So the customer had read "Any Soda For Just 25 cents," forgetting to read the top line, and misleading him to think that our sodas were actually that cheap.

When I pointed out the mistake the two customers laughed but were slightly disappointed. They then had to borrow two dollars from friends. This had defiantly been the funniest thing to happen to me in a while at the Zone.

The moral of the story today children is: READ CAREFULLY!!!

Also in regards to reading; customers please read the sign right in front of the register that says cash and RU Express ONLY and we now have our flavors written on the gelato case, do not ask what flavors we have.

Phylisha =)

(AKA Phylifa and Hyli_a_ore)