Friday, June 24: I spent today meeting with Ryan and Tina as
they worked on their final preparation for the Bike MS150 event. Bike MS is a national fundraiser for the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Colorado Bike MS is the nation’s
third largest location. We plan to serve
dinner and breakfast to about 2,000 cyclists.
Some last minute tasks today included counting linens (tablecloths,
napkins, etc.) from catering, picking up miscellaneous serving bowls and
utensils from a few different dining halls, and checking out the event
site. We called it early today knowing
tomorrow and Sunday will be very busy and long days.
Saturday, June 25: After a run along the Poudre River and
Spring Creek Trails, I snuck in a quick visit to the farmers’ market before
getting ready for Bike MS. Most of the
vendors were the same as last week, but I still enjoyed walking around and
eating all of the delicious samples.
Before heading over to the event site, Ryan took me, Tina, and two
student trainers to Fuzzy’s for lunch.
It was a nice way to ease into the day and an unexpected surprise. After lunch we made our way over to the site
for set up. About 30 minutes after
arriving, a huge cloud cover came in and thunder started. We were told to immediately evacuate the
tent. It quickly started to pour and
lightning started. Tina and I went to
Durrell, where we stayed for over an hour waiting for the storm to pass. This definitely threw everyone for a loop and
made set up for dinner a bit hectic, but it was nice to relax before dinner
started. Once the storm cleared,
everyone got back together to prepare for service.
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| Front of the line for dinner |
 |
| Desserts! |
I’ve never prepared for such a large scale event and it was amazing to witness all of the work that goes into catering an event. We served about 900 cyclists for dinner, which is about 300 less than we thought. Although we had many leftovers, the rainbow blondies I helped make last week at the Bakeshop were very popular. Cyclists like their desserts! However, this made for a much quicker clean-up that expected.
Sunday, June 26: I woke up to my alarm at 2:30am in order to
meet Ryan and Tina at Durrell at 3:15am.
For the most part, everyone was lively and ready to go. We served from 4:45am to 7am and were cleaned
up by 8am.
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| Breakfast menu |
With all of the help from the
hourly student employees, the student trainers and managers, and the classified
employees, set up, service, and clean up went quite smoothly. Overall, it was fascinating to watch the
collaboration between all of the dining halls and seeing the complexity of a
large catering event. Between Durrell,
Corbett, Ram’s Horn, Braiden, the Bakeshop, and the Storeroom, the event came
together very well. Despite the
thunderstorm interruption and fewer cyclists than expected, Bike MS150 was a
great experience. I was in desperate
need of a caffeine fix after breakfast service, so I drove to Bindle Coffee at
Jessup Farm. It is an adorable complex
with a restaurant, café, clothing store, and Bindle Coffee. There was even free outdoor yoga in a
courtyard. Bindle makes their own almond
cashew milk, which I had to try, of course!
It was quite a relaxing morning after a busy last 20 hours. I will definitely enjoy some extra sleep
tonight!
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