On Route 66, ice cream and traveling a long road
For almost 20 years, I have planned and hosted programs for women as Women's Initiative Coordinator for Itasca Bank & Trust Co. Our programs drew audiences of from 30 to over 200 women for learning, information sharing and connection. My favorite part of my job has always been talking with the women who came to the programs or are part of the roundtables for women business owners. In March, that face-to-face contact ended, and since then I have communicated to those women by email and hosted the roundtables in virtual meetings.
Like many, I assumed things would be back to normal in a few months. In August, I faced facts and understood I would have to reinvent my thinking and plan programs that would engage and delight our audience the way our in-person programs did.
Our annual Ice Cream Social had always been one of the most popular events ever since we hosted the first one in 2007. Since we can no longer be together in the same location, we arranged for a video presentation by the historian and presenter Leslie Goddard, Remembering Route 66, that will be viewed on our website.
But of course, we couldn't have an ice cream social without ice cream. We contacted a local ice cream shop so the women who are registered for the program could pick up a small container of ice cream to enjoy while they watched the video.
In the past when women phoned to register for programs, it was a quick call to give their names. Now we talk, being hungry, not just for ice cream, but for the connection that we all crave. The conversations start with the smile and laughter I hear in their voices, since the idea of ice cream makes everyone smile.
We look forward to the ice cream, and we especially like that it is from a small local business. We share how we have been coping these past months. We may talk about the loss or illness of a loved one, new things we're learning or are planning to do since everyday life has changed. We all look for the positive in these changes.
One woman shared with me a favorite childhood memory that was sparked by the title of our program: Remembering Route 66. She grew up in Chicago, and whenever her family happened to be driving on Route 66, her father would always say, "we could take this road all the way to California." That resonated with me, the possibility - right then in the car, things were OK, but one day, they could take that road, Route 66, to California. Growing up in Chicago, I also experienced California "dreamin'" and years later finally vacationed there.
We don't know how long the road is until things are back to normal. There could be potholes along the way. We may feel upbeat one day, and down the next. The women I speak with are dealing with worry, fear, and loss. But at the same time, they are living one day at a time, looking for new things to learn and enjoy right now; what changes they can make to their businesses; how they can help others. The more we live in the present, rather than the past, and the more we connect with each other, the road we are on today seems easier. Especially with ice cream.
• Diane Middlebrooks, of Itasca, is women's initiative coordinator for Itasca Bank & Trust Co.