Concerts on Carter Creek

Concerts on Carter Creek is held annually at the First Presbyterian Church in Bryan, Texas. This event has been held consecutively for thirty-seven seasons and features a minimum of five different artists each year from the surrounding Bryan area, giving them a local base of support. The purpose of this event is to offer an outreach music ministry for the community by offering free concerts. This event is fully funded from arts foundations and patrons of the concert series. 

I volunteered on Sunday, November 17, 2019. The artist featured for this Sunday was a renowned opera singer; Emily Pulley, who was born and raised in the Bryan area. Her act consisted of multiple songs; including old Christian classics to musical favorites. Following her performance, the community gathered for the reception period where they enjoyed cookies, cake, punch, and assorted crackers. This reception time allows for the community to gather and talk, as well as meet with the performers of each event. From helping out with this event, I can conclude that it is truly executed in a way that brings a community together.

While volunteering at this event, I had multiple roles I had to play to assure the event went effectively and efficiently as possible. My duties for this event included; greeting guests, handing out programs, directing guests into the church, finding and moving chairs for an overflow of guests, refilling food and refreshments, and handing out punch for guests. Lastly, as we had students from Texas A&M University attending this event for class credit, I was tasked with ensuring they left with a signed form for their professor showing that they were present for the event. 

From this event, I have learned many aspects of how to carry out a successful event which I plan to use in my future career as an event coordinator. The first principle I learned at this event is the importance of having enough programs for your guests. During this event, we ran out of programs for guests, which not only include community members but students who needed the programs for class credit. Because we ran out of programs, we had to initiate a quick resolution for students to assure they received class credit, which included printed copies of the program with a signature from members of the church. Hence, to assure my events are executed flawlessly in the future, I will make sure to always print extra programs even when I am confident of the guest count. Secondly, through this event, I learned the significance of having enough volunteers at each entry and exit handing out event programs. Due to the fact, that guests were having to make the way to the front of the church in order to retrieve programs as we ran out of them at the back entrances. Lastly, I gained an understanding of the importance of having readily available seats for all and any events. During this event, the church did not anticipate the entire church to be filled with an overflow of guests. However, we were able to solve the issue by grabbing additional chairs and aligning them along the backside of the church to ensure our guests a satisfactory experience by the end of the night.