Little Friends of Rittenhouse

            What a long, strange week it’s been.

            After a crazy 10-hour workday on Wednesday, I was ready to spend the next day relaxing at the beach. Unfortunately, my attempt at a stress-free day was more stressful than any day at work.

            I thought that a jam-packed day at work and the fact that my little cousins were in town was the perfect excuse to go down the shore. However, over halfway there, I got rear-ended. I was stopped at a toll and there was an accident on the side of the road. All of the sudden, I heard glass crashing and I was being jerked forward. A woman, who had three little girls in the car, had been rubbernecking the accident on the side and did not slow down for the toll. That’s right: she did not break at all.

The car that hit me.

All of the woman’s airbags deployed and her car was completely totaled. On top of all that, I had my younger cousins in my backseat. I was initially panicked but luckily, my baby (known to some as a car) saved our lives and we all came out with minor soreness. While we survived, I learned today that my car did not. (Side note, I’ve been crying about it all day.)

My baby getting towed.

            I felt as though I had to at least mention my accident, but the real reason I’m writing is to explain why I needed a day at the beach. It started at Nest in Center City Philadelphia and ended with an event called Little Friends of Rittenhouse.

            As I have explained in a previous post, Nest is a children’s enrichment center that Gloss PR just took on as a client. Gloss has several goals in regards to Nest’s public relations plan. One of these goals is to bring Philadelphia visitors in for a day-of-play. In order to do so, a few other interns (who just started) and I put together bags to give out to the higher-end hotels. Instead of meeting in the office, we met at Nest. While my bosses were in a meeting with the Nest executives, the other interns and I were putting together the bags. Each bag included a schedule of Nest classes and activities and coupons for a discounted day at the play center.

The Nest bags we put together and delivered.

            The week before, I had gone through our database of hotels and printed out labels with the hotel name and address to be used on the bags. After assigning each bag a destination with a label, we separated them geographically. My experience during the Preview Party and the Spring Festival made me a Philadelphia expert, which in turn made me very useful in organizing our routes. We then assigned ourselves to one group of bags to deliver. Since I am extremely familiar with Rittenhouse, I took on the hotels in that area.

The Rittenhouse Botique Hotel, which was one of the hotels I had to deliver to.

            Before we set out on our bag-delivering journey, we got a tour from the Nest manager. The facility is an impressive three stories. The color scheme is bright and cheery, incorporating a lot of greens and purples. The middle floor includes the front desk and children’s boutique, which sells everything from high-end children’s clothing to games and toys. Downstairs is the play area. Only members are allowed in this section, which is very whimsical and inviting. The spot includes a fake tree with a slide, a “boating” area, a swing, and lots and lots of toys. The upper floor is where the classes take place. The classrooms resemble a dance studio, with open floor space and wall-to-wall mirrors. There is also an arts and crafts room on the upper level.

            Once we were Nest experts, we were released to deliver the bags. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I was practically giddy to be able to walk around beautiful Rittenhouse Square and do my job. I went into each hotel and said something along the lines of:

            “Hi my name is Brooke and I am a representative of Nest, which is a children’s enrichment center in Center City. Nest has coupons for a discounted day-of-play that they would love to give you. We are hoping that you will give them out to guests with little children.”

            I went to eight hotels and got all positive responses. Each concierge smiled, thanked me, and took the bags without hesitation. It felt amazing to help Nest reach their goal and to fulfill my mission.

            After I finished the Nest job, I had to wait until Little Friends of Rittenhouse started. The event was a children’s event in Rittenhouse Square. While Rittenhouse Row is an organization for the businesses in the area, Friends of Rittenhouse is an organization for the area’s residents. Little Friends of Rittenhouse brings the children’s-related businesses, organizations, and restaurants under one tent for a night of family fun. There are many tables with various activities and food samples and there is a DJ, who leads the event.

Not a bad work environment.

            I finished the bag delivery around 2 p.m. and didn’t have to be anywhere until 4:30, which left me with two hours to kill in the city. Lucky for me, Philadelphia is a good place to be when you have time to spare. I went to a coffee shop for a delicious iced coffee, visited Ulta and perused around for new lipstick, and ate in the overwhelming-but-delicious Reading Terminal Market for the first time.

            Another intern and I still had some time to spare after we finished lunch, so we decided to sit at Starbucks for the remainder of our break. At that point, we were sore and tired. We had been up and running for a long time, and we were beginning to feel it. Instead of being able to go home as we usually would, we had an event ahead of us. Even though my feet hurt and I was physically spent, I was excited to work the event. In my opinion, events give you experience and knowledge that you could never gain in an office. Therefore, I want to work any event I can.

            When the time finally came, I drove to UPenn’s campus to pick up ice cream donations from Ben & Jerry’s. The school was beautiful and it was interesting to see a campus that was so different from my own.

            At the event, it was my assignment to work the ice cream station. In the beginning, I was just standing there watching the ice cream melt. It’s going to be a long night, I thought. Turns out I was right. But the event was not going to drag on due to lack of customers. In fact, the opposite was true.

Before it was all a melted mess.

It seemed that after guests sampled dinner food such as pizza and pasta, they all had the same idea: Ben & Jerry’s. Suddenly, I had a seemingly endless line of people anxiously awaiting their free cookies & cream. The ice cream was almost impossible to scoop and extremely messy. I was getting so behind and at one point, I just wanted to cry out for help.

            Then, almost as a gift from above, a woman came over and asked me if I needed help. “Yes,” I replied, probably too quickly. For the next hour and a half or so, this lovely woman and I slaved over the melting Ben & Jerry’s. By the end of the event, I was tired, hungry, and covered in chocolate ice cream. I was the last Gloss person to leave the event, even after my bosses.

            Despite the fact that the day was long and stressful, it was nice to get more hands-on experience. But hopefully next time, my hands wont be covered in Ben & Jerry’s. 

The beginning of Little Friends of Rittenhouse.