Last year, I thought a pub crawl for cancer was ridiculous. This year, I participated. It's amazing how quickly views can change. There was no talk of cancer, no information booths, and no pink ribbons. The only mention of cancer was every one's printed t-shirts. The team fees were a part of the donations to local charities. No doubt, a lot of money was raised. The pub crawl was sold out with a waiting list. The organizers even auctioned the last two team entries on eBay. I suppose if a pub crawl was to happen in Westport, it might as well have the money go to charities. I would recommend at least announcing the amount of money raised for cancer at the end of the crawl. Maybe a fundraising thermometer in the middle of the tent would do the trick. That always worked well in college. I wonder how people with cancer or beat cancer feel about fund raises that involve alcohol? As for the Crawl for Cancer experience, it was a fun time. It's a must-do at least once. The majority of the people are young professionals. The area is flooded with people, I couldn't even find my co-worker's team who was on the same route. On the other hand, I encountered a few people I didn't expect to see.
A team member brought up an excellent point why he enjoys the crawl over his usual evening bar outings. He talked about how everyone is on the same playing field. There is no peacocking and no judgements on people's dress. Everyone basically has a t-shirt and jeans. The atmosphere was to talk to new people and there were plenty to choose from.
Onto the museums... Just when I thought I covered the local museums, I was proven wrong. A part of the Belgian Beer and White Wine party was to first tour the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the Kansas City Jazz Museum. Before the group hiked over to the museums, my friend hung a sign on the door that read, "Out to get some culture..." I realized it was about time I got a cultural dose in sports and music. The tours were fairly short compared to the art museums I'm accustomed to touring, but proved interesting. I enjoyed the baseball museum more than the jazz museum simply because the history of negro baseball was well-explained and inspiring. The jazz museum was presented more as a snapshot during the height of the jazz era. The jazz museum, however, was much more interactive with its music and videos than the baseball museum. Both are worth checking out at least once, as with anything else.
