Volunteering for Shire Sharing

Shire Sharing is a voluntaryist inspired charity organized by early mover to the Free State Project and NH State Representative Amanda Bouldin. This was the second year that this Free Keene blogger volunteered for the charity. I volunteered to assist with the assembly and delivery of the Thanksgiving meals from their Manchester location. This location was a warehouse near the Manchester airport that was donated to use for this past weekend. The crescendo of Shire Sharing took place on November 21st & 22nd during the assembly and delivery phase of the charity.

I arrive a few minutes after 10 am Saturday November 21st at the assembly location in Manchester with my fiance and co-host of the Rebel Love Show Ann Leverette. We were somewhat fashionably late(running on anarchist time) with dunks in hand.  A quick scan of the warehouse and we were not the only ones that had the same idea.  The organizers were still setting up when we arrived and people were still arriving.  From past experiences, I knew we had at least another 30 minutes before the assembly phase of Shire Sharing would begin.  In moments like this, you are surrounded by dozens of liberty activists. It’s a great opportunity to catch up/network with those you have not seen in months (or in a Shire year).  There were also at least half a dozen new early movers to the Free State Project that had just moved in the past month alone.  It is always inspiring to see more people becoming active to promote a free society.

Amanda Bouldin yells for everyone’s attention from the front the front of the room. All the volunteers crowd around to hear the instructions on how the assembly of the Thanksgiving meals will take place. Immediately after, everyone lines up to get a grocery list tailored to the family that the dinners are going too, a red bag, and a letter to the recipients which reads: “This comes to you from someone who cares about you. All we ask is that you take care of yourself well enough to be able to do this for someone else some day.” Around this room, there are stations of different food in order in which they are on the grocery list. With red bags in hand, people go station to station filling up the red bags with items necessary for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. In what only seemed like an hour, the tall piles of food that were once at each station were now spread out in hundreds of red bags that had been sorted for their delivery routes tomorrow. Assembly day at Shire Sharing was coming to an end.

The very next morning, Ann and I once again arrive fashionably late with dunks in hand for the delivery phase of Shire Sharing. The crowd this day was smaller than the previous day. The reasoning is that more people are needed to assemble the Thanksgiving dinners compared to the amount needed to deliver the dinners. Two types of deliveries were to be made. People volunteered their own vehicles to deliver the dinners. There was also a bus and trailer truck that was used to deliver dinners to multiple poor housing communities in Manchester and Concord. Ann and I volunteered to take part with the bus delivery. The delivery phase started with the arrival of the Turkey, butter, and eggs for the dinners to go out. However, this delivery made us look like we were punctual. Once again, the opportunity to network/hang out with amazing liberty activists took place before the final food shipment arrived. Once it arrived, the volunteers delivering in their own vehicles lined up with the red bags that they are responsible for and packed them with Turkey, eggs, and butter. After that, the vast majority of the volunteers dispersed to their cars to start their deliveries. The remaining volunteers then filled the same truck up with the bags going to the central locations, jumped on the bus, and headed for the first drop off location. Before doing so, as with most New Englanders, there was a popular demand to make a pit stop for more Dunkin Donuts coffee. Something I am never going to turn down or protest.  Remember, Anarchy runs on Dunkin.

With a bus of about twenty people caffeinated, we hit the road. Our first stop was in Manchester. The bus pulls up next to the truck and trailer that had already arrived ahead of us. We pile out to each grab a red bag from the trailer to take into a low-income apartment building. As we grab the red bags, we make our way in groups with Andre Rosa taking the lead in navigating us where to go. Each group hit a different floor of the building delivering a dinner to each apartment. For the people that were home for the deliveries, it was magical to witness the look of shock and happiness they had receiving traditional Thanksgiving dinners. Within a matter of minutes, the deliveries were finished and our group headed back to the bus.

Our next two stops were in Concord, roughly a twenty-minute drive north from Manchester. There is a toll on the I-93 that connects the two cities. When we pulled up to the toll, Amanda attempted to inform the toll booth attendee that she was a State Representative and that they were currently on a mission to deliver Thanksgiving meals to those in need. The attendee, without missing a beat, states he needs to see her papers to waive the toll. The cabin of the bus erupts in laughter about the issue. One thing that is a constant with Porcupines, they love making fun of the state. Even as a Representative in said state government.

We arrive at another low-income apartment complex which has a majority of refugee residents from various parts of the world. Unlike the previous location, there are multiple buildings that deliveries are to go to. The red bags for this stop are sorted first from the truck based on the building they are destined for. Once completed, the volunteers scatter in all directions carrying the red bags to the last stop on their journey.
When returning to the bus, we file back aboard to only discover that the bus would not start. There was still one last delivery destination to get too. A few calls were made and a mechanic that was having a drink at the nearby Porcupine owned Area 23 and drove over to help fix the bus. Luckily for us the next destination was literally right next to the location we were at. All of us once again got out, grabbed the remaining red bags and walked through a break in a fence dividing the properties and the last location on our journey. In one trip, the remaining red bags filled with Thanksgiving dinners were delivered.

Upon returning to the bus, it was once again operational. I say operational loosely….. We get back on the road heading home to Manch Vegas and all of the sudden the doors on the wheelchair entrance start wailing back and forth, coming inches away from hitting the light poles that we were passing on the streets of concord. One of the passengers in the back scrambles to hold the doors shut as the bus pulls into a gas station. I run out from the front door of the bus and jump out to assist slamming the doors shut to ensure that they remained closed for the remainder of the trip. The fun doesn’t end there either with what appears to be an alternator issue on the bus. Between Concord and Manchester, the bus seems to chug and then cruise. Multiple times, people fear the bus will break down on I-93. The first hurdle was passed at the toll booth on the return. However, once entering Manchester, the bus took a turn for the worse. The driver, Kristine Bouncer, struggled to keep the bus from slowing down until at least off the interstate. Many turns used little in regards to brakes in the attempt to not slow down the forward momentum that the bus had. We finally see the exit and a cheer roars from in the cabin. We get onto Brown ave in Manchester and somehow luckly do not hit any red lights until the very last turn. However with no traffic and a bus that would break down immediately if it stops, Kristine had no choice but to make the turn. She pulls up to the parking area of the warehouse, the bus chugging and shaking the entire time. The moment we get there, the bus loses power. There was barely enough energy left to get the front door an inch open. I had to force the front door open the rest of the way. Kristine, by the way, did an incredible job handling the bus in the condition that it was. With Shire Sharing finally over, many of us hug each other outside the now powerless bus, say our good byes, and head toward our perspective cars.

This was the second Shire Sharing that I have volunteered for and each year it is well worth the time and energy. It is beautiful to see so many families, even for just one day, not have to worry about food. Over 600 families were fed this year and hopefully even more next year. I know for Ann and I, this will become an annual tradition to help out Shire Sharing. If you want to find out more about this fantastic local charity out of New Hampshire, check out ShireSharing.org