Citrus Sharers
Nancy Patterson
Hey Ho! Citrus Sharers here. We are the citrus picking folks who come to life in January, and we’re still looking for a couple of people to be team leaders. Maybe I need to explain to you what the team leaders actually do.
First, you need to know that you’d already have an entire team of volunteers. They’re wonderful and ready to help—they just need a leader. And those of us who have been team leaders for years will help you in any way we can. We will walk you through every single step until you are comfortable and possibly sick of us by then. James and Laura Harrald are our leaders, and they want you to succeed and will also help in any way they can. (Everyone is helping everyone all the time—very bonding.)
At the beginning of the season, you will be given a fresh, updated Excel spreadsheet for your area (via email or a hard copy). It has all the names, addresses, trees they have, phone numbers, email addresses, and notes from past years. It’s a very, very thorough job done all year long by Pearl Ryan. She works full time at her regular job and updates all of Sun Lakes Citrus Sharers’ database in her spare time. And she doesn’t even swagger when she walks.
We only pick citrus five weeks a year and only on Saturdays and Mondays. That’s 10 days a year! About a week before we start picking, team leaders start calling folks on their list to line up picking for each day. Busy, busy Pearl even puts the houses in order for you to call next to each other. It’s not rocket science. I would guess I spend about 10 hours a week, outside of the actual picking, working on team captain duties. Possibly I’ve said too much. I know my neighbors and teammates think I work so hard—yikes, I simply hope they don’t read this far down the article.
Sun Lakes is full of qualified team captains. If you can’t think of anyone to step up, why not you?
If interested in volunteering or more information, contact Laura Harrald at [email protected] or 206-228-5155.