Febbraio 2021
My name is Paolo and I live in Rimini with my family, where I was born in 1979. The first edition of the Meeting was organized in 1980, just one year later, and I have thus ‘breathed its air’ since I was a kid thanks to my parents who used to bring me there with them.
I have always liked to participate as a visitor, first as a kid, then as a teenager, and today as an adult, but I have loved contributing as a volunteer even more. The Meeting is, for me, a beautiful and attractive place. Everything is beautiful.
I have never been somebody particularly interested in cultural activities so, for example, I have never tried to ‘push my way’ to get into one of the Meeting’s workshops and roundtables, or to visit one of the exhibitions. I have always preferred ‘doing something’ such as working in the team that builds up the installations and stands or moving pallets of material in the warehouse… and organizing social gatherings with other volunteers. In 2001, I did community service at the Meeting, when it was still mandatory instead of military service. Since 2005, I have been working for the Meeting as an employee on the promotion and organization of its travelling exhibitions and this is still my main responsibility today.
Working for the Meeting as an employee is clearly different from donating my time, availability, and resources as a volunteer, yet for me these two ways of contributing go together. This is certainly a particular aspect of my personality that is when I live a positive experience it becomes natural to put what I am and have at disposal of everybody. Another fact that strikes me every year – and that confirms how beautiful and attractive the Meeting is – is when I look at my five kids: my eldest daughter is fourteen and the youngest two twins are six years old. They have also ‘lived’ the Meeting since they were very young as something beautiful and attractive, first walking around with us parents or the babysitter and then with their friends seeking gadgets or eating an ice cream. “Dad, can we go to the Meeting today?” even the little ones ask. And during the year: “Dad, when is the Meeting?”
I have always tried, for what I can, to contribute even financially to the Meeting during the main week at the end of August, for example by simply having dinner there with my family or by inviting friends to spend the evening together (since I am busy working as a volunteer during the day).
In 2019 in Rimini, as in other Italian cities, we organized an event called “Meet the Meeting” in the city square. My friends and I spent the day distributing brochures, explaining what the Meeting was and inviting everybody to come and see. We were also asking for a €10 charity donation to support it in exchange for a bottle of wine: that wasn’t easy!
In 2020, I had much more time available because my job got to a nearly total standstill due to the Covid pandemic that blocked all travelling exhibitions and therefore I decided to get involved and put myself at disposal even more. I realized that, if I got in touch with more people beyond “Meet the Meeting” event so to communicate the possibility to donate and get a free bottle of wine, it was certainly possible to collect even more in support of the Meeting. In addition, since most people could not move easily due to the lockdown, I realized that I could home deliver the wine and thus further contributing to donations. I put my time, car, and petrol at disposal… “if the car breaks down, we’ll deal about that…” I was telling myself. As a result, I met so many people (wearing a mask and keeping social distancing!) most thanked me personally for what I was doing: I home delivered over one thousand bottles in the Rimini province!
I have the same attitude at work: it’s my way to respond to what struck me in my life. You can’t measure too much or say “ah, but this is not my responsibility… I do something else at the Meeting” or “this is something others should do.” There is always a plausible excuse not to do it. For what I could, I have always contributed, even beyond my working hours as a volunteer.
Even though 2020 was a particularly challenging year for the Meeting, I never felt ‘a number’ or ‘a cost’ as an employee. Like many others, I had to spend a period on furlough, but I helped in other ways for example I decided to donate one month of my salary as a thank you gesture.
Second thoughts? No, this is right. In one-year time, I see myself here where I am now, where else
otherwise?
For the future, I hope that my children could keep experiencing the same beauty that they saw and lived all these years. I would like them to keep having the Meeting at the top of their value ranking!
Paolo, Rimini
