MRFC Can Do

Last week we read the story of Rosie the Rosigold mango, how I bought her for the Colorado snowbirds who won the auction, then sent her to be a prize in a Chinese raffle for Transition Sarasota, and how she was won by the Seattle snowbirds, and I swapped a loquat tree for her, and she went to live with the Colorado's after all. It was a story about how things somehow manage to work out.

This week we have another such tale. But in this one, things work out in spite of me, rather than thanks to me.

It starts with an unfortunate tumble that produced three broken ribs. The ribs belong to our friend and longtime MRFC member David Rowe. 2015 was an exceedingly bad year for him. His wife (and my best-ever tree-sale cash-counting partner) Anna Mae passed away, and as a final kick in the teeth, or rather in the ribs, the nasty accident put him in the hospital.

Everyone who's been in our club more than a minute or two knows that David renders the invaluable service of running the club's raffle table. The raffle finds good homes for deserving fruit trees and other edible plants, while the proceeds from ticket sales add a sizable contribution to our club's coffers.

By the time the January MRFC meeting rolled around, David had graduated to a rehab hospital, but they weren't going to let him out yet, not even for us. On the day before the meeting, he tried many times to call me, getting only a busy signal. We don't know why, but for whatever reason, the message couldn't get through.

Now this should have been no problem, because for years I've prepared for just such a possibility. Along with the gear I bring for my duties as treasurer, membership chair and A/V tech, I always packed a couple of rolls of raffle tickets in case we needed to pinch hit for David.

When he didn't appear at the meeting, someone asked me for raffle tickets, and I said no problem, they are right here, um, well, then they must be right here...uh oh...

Apparently in one of my reorganizations of that gear, the raffle tickets left themselves out. How careless they were! Shame on them!

Luckily, I was bailed out, by Spencer Salser and by David's regular assistant, Valerie (also known as Welch daughter #4), who despite her young age must already be well on her way to being either a fruit tree expert or a CEO, or most likely both. And by the other MRFC members who all pitched in. They improvised tickets, and made the raffle happen. Good thing, too, as in addition to the usual jackpot of interesting plants, it featured several Florida-adapted pawpaw trees and other rarities donated by speaker Charles Novak.

So, things work out, either with my help or despite my blunders. The MRFC gets it done.