2009 Choir tour: Behind the scenes, attention to detail
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(Read Gerry Avant's blog as she accompanies the Choir on their 2009 tour.)
NORMAN, OKLA.
Ron Crapo is a man with a lot of baggage.
Literal baggage — suitcases and such.
Except for his own bag, the luggage belongs to the 569 people on the 2009 Mormon Tabernacle Choir's summer tour. It's Brother Crapo's responsibility to see to it that the bags and their owners end up in the same hotel rooms.
Anyone who has ever ventured away from home knows how easy it is for travelers and their bags to become separated, even when there is only one destination. Brother Crapo and volunteers from among the choir, Orchestra at Temple Square and guests have to match bags along a concert tour that began June 18 and concludes June 30.
Everybody's luggage was collected on June 14, the Sunday before the choir's departure on June 18 for its first concert in Cincinnati that evening and sent, along with bags belonging to members of the Orchestra at Temple Square and other guests, by truck directly to St. Louis, Mo. Choir members and guests who stayed the one night in Cincinnati made do with carry-on bags, thereby relieving Brother Crapo and his team of volunteer luggage pullers from their tasks. By the tour's end, more than 100 volunteers will have had the distinction of being luggage pullers.
On the seven-city tour, some nights found the travelers staying in separate hotels. With very few glitches, their bags were waiting in their hotel rooms upon their arrival. By about 11:30 p.m. on the eve of departure from each hotel, the bags are picked up from outside the hotel rooms and loaded onto four luggage trucks, which depart around 2 a.m. in order to get the bags to the next hotel.
Even the casual observer can tell the task takes a lot of attention to detail. Volunteers and hotel staff must read the names on every bag, mark the room number and deliver the luggage to the right rooms. The job becomes a bit challenging when some people in the choir have similar names, or even the same names.
As this article is being written, Brother Crapo's job is about done. After a concert in Norman, the choir group returned to their hotel in Oklahoma City, the next-to-last-stop on the tour. When they arrive in Denver late Sunday night after an 11-hour bus ride, they will find their bags waiting in their hotel rooms.
After the luggage is collected in Denver Monday night, June 29, the bags will be sent to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City where members of the tour group will pick them up Tuesday evening as the tour concludes.
Brother Crapo, literally, can say he has let go of all his baggage.
