Our secret weapon

When my alarm went off on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. I was not happy. In fact, I pushed snooze button so many times, I was barely dressed when Meghan arrived at my house to load up the rest of our items and head to the Little League field.
This was way too early for a weekend morning, but we pressed on, giant coffee mugs in hand. We were determined to bring in some cash to close in on our goal.
We arrived at the field and began to set up our concession table. After last weekend, we are now old pros, so it didn’t take long to get the purple tablecloth on and the Skittles in their position. Finally, we sat into our portable chairs and started to relax. As the balls clinked off the bats, we anxiously waited for customers.
For some reason, I turned my head to the left and look behind us. “Oh no,” I said to Meghan as I watched a huge tent soar into the air, boxes of candy unloading from a SUV and a grill rolling into position. “It’s another concession stand,” I almost screamed as my brain began to make sense of exactly what was unfolding in the distance.
How could it be? This professional group of “concession stand people” weren’t supposed to hit little league games until we were finished fundraising. But here they were and it didn’t look like they were leaving any time soon. And they had a GRILL and TONS of candy. (I’m talking every candy imaginable. It seriously looked like a Willy Wonka’s operation.)
Depression hit pretty quick as we looked over our small little concession stand table with way less options than our competition. We were sure we were doomed.
But that was before our secret weapon arrived – my 17-year-old cousin Connie.
Connie had come to the field to help us sell items. Her mom, Kathy Jo, was there too and she quickly worked out a deal with the competitors that would send customers our way for any items we had stocked. Our candy was melting in the sun, so Connie ran home and got us an umbrella.
Quickly, things were looking up.
But we were still worried about the sales. Would we even make $20?
Connie assured us we would be successful and then she got to work. She strapped a cooler around her neck, attached a Leukemia & Lymphoma sign to it and hit the stands. “I have ice cold beverages for sale. We have coke, diet coke, water and Gatorade,” she bellowed. “All proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma society.” This was a truly amazing sight.
Parent after parent ordered a drink from Connie and most told her to keep the change. Periodically she would run back to the table and dump off piles of quarters and ones. We were making a killing.
Sure, the other concession stand had almost every single item you could imagine, but they didn’t have Connie. And in the end, this Saturday turned out to be our most profitable yet.
Meghan and I walked away with $200 - just the boost we needed.
We begged Connie to hit the field with us again. She’s out of town this weekend, but we’re hoping she’ll be up for another Saturday.
She’s for sure our new top secret agent.
Since we forgot our camera, I’ll make sure to grab a picture of her next time she’s at the games. You have to see her in action to believe how much damage she can do.
Thanks Connie! We owe you big time.