miss bossypants

today at the work site i met miss bossypants.

i know her name; i just like her title.

actually, she has some real titles having to do with her day job (she is an advanced ski instructor at mad river) and some titles having to do with her volunteer job which started the day the floodwaters were rising in moretown last august.

she gets stuff done. it takes a lot of people to do the flood relief. it takes people to give the money and to haul the debris and to demolish and rebuild and to feed the town and clothe the homeless and all the well-wishers could run in and work willy-nilly, but the whole thing goes better if somebody coordinates the effort.

and the flood was last august but the devastated towns still aren't rebuilt and a lot of families are still homeless.

meanwhile, the town of warren still had its gigantic crazy fourth of july parade just the way they have for a hundred years and the grand marshal's car is still a place of great honor and they put this woman in that car, complete with a sash that said "MISS BOSSYPANTS" and you know it was a grateful accolade bestowed by a resilient community.

there's little enough we can do to help. we expect to bring our own sandwiches. but miss bossypants coordinated not just the twenty-seven volunteers on two sites today, but also a volunteer to make lunch for twenty-seven people.

there was baked ziti and meatballs the size of your fist in fresh homemade tomato sauce and a beautiful tossed salad of spring greens and nice touches: it included avocado chunks and dried cranberries and pignolis.

there were also fantastic dark chocloate brownies, made from scratch.

and miss bossypants reminded us: it might just be a day of work to you, but it'll put two families a lot closer to coming back home.