Fleet Week
Fleet Week is an event during October 10th and 11th that showcases military personnel, various tasks done by them, and really cool air shows by the Blue Angels and others. The Funky Monkeys go every year to volunteer and help out with selling concession items and we earn a portion of the profits for the team. Usually, in past years, we’ve volunteered to spend our time at two concession stands. This year we tried something different; instead of volunteering at two concession stands and selling the same things, we volunteered our help to a brat selling vendor by the name of Johnsonville Brats, and one concession stand.
We had a team of 9 students, mentors, and parents help out at the grill and the buying station (4 at the grill and 5 at the buying station). We had a ton of customers and it was an exhilarating experience. Even though we had some issues, it was a good team effort all around, as we were able to keep up with the mad rush of customers. Good job all around to everybody who helped made this fundraiser a success!
We also got the chance to sell concessions, such as t-shirts and model airplanes for a small profit. At first, selling things to people you have never met before can seem like a daunting task, but after a few hours, it became routine and quite simple. Some people will even buy what you’re selling simply to support us, The Funky Monkeys. In the end, the customers get what they want and our club get profited. In addition, Fleet Week is a great way for members to develop their communication skills and entrepreneurship such as Rio Suzuki, a Funky Monkey member, who claimed, “I learned how to interact with new people.”
Even with all the craze in both locations, the rush on the other stands was equally as hectic, if not greater. There were military trucks, robots, games, various companies, and loads of free goodies! Free items were mostly given out by the companies that were presented such as T-Mobile, Oracle, and USAA. USAA was one of the better ones as they had the Super Bowl L trophy, multi-tool sets, pens, booklets to hold important car documents, and a game of throwing footballs and completing passes incorporated with a raffle to get tickets to a 49-ers game (remarkably a member of ours, Yash Joshi, achieved a score of 11 complete passes and got on the leader board). One of the more comical stories out of the two days was of three of our members, Owen Li, Yash Joshi, and Arsh Malhotra. They taught a couple military members about the bomb defusing robot that they were showing off. They went in and gauged their knowledge with some questions and by the end of the conversation they were asking us questions about why and how the robot could go wrong.
However, the highlight of the day was the Blue Angels and the various other air shows that happened. The air show had most of the audience entranced in its glory and excitement. The show started off with a sky diver with the American flag hanging below him while the national anthem was sung and was quickly followed by military professionals showing off their training in the air such as fighting while parachuting down. After the parachuter came the planes, which performed amazing tricks. One of their stunts included two planes going at each other at near top speed and, right before they hit each other, they tilt their plane 90 degrees to avoid one another.
Overall, it was a great weekend for the team where everyone had fun and gained new experiences.
