Canning Weekend Adventures by Taylor McCarty

For me, the night before a canning trip is like Christmas Eve.  I lay in bed giddy like a child, thinking about all of the adventures that the weekend holds.  This trip was no different; I was exponentially excited for the first canning trip of the year with my Alpha Beta brothers!

This trip was a little different for me.  I was driving to Bridgewater, New Jersey with four other people in my car.  Being responsible for transporting such precious cargo (Rachel Schaeffer, Abby Johnson, Maria DiMuccio and Lauren Thigpen!) made me very nervous.  Even though I was sitting on pins and needles the entire drive, the trip was so much fun thanks to those girls keeping me laughing for four hours straight.

We arrived at Cory Georgeson’s beautiful home around 10:30 PM, and were greated by fellow brothers, Cory’s lovely parents and adorable dog, Maddie! We exchanged stories about our journeys, watched some throwback episodes of Friends and got to bed early.  6:30 AM was quickly approaching, and we would be out to the streets of New Jersey to raise money FTK!

After a little bit of searching, we found the perfect intersection and it was as if money was simply materializing in our cans.  Dancing, singing, yelling- we used every trick in the book to make people get out their wallets and empty their cup holders for donations.  There were only a few rude encounters from passers-by, but we refused to get discouraged.  After a delicious lunch at Alfonso’s Italian Restaurant, we were back at it!

When the sun began to set, we made our way back to Cory’s house, where Mr. and Mrs. Georgeson fed us until you had to roll us away from the table.  I had my first slice of pumpkin pie of the season, and it was great!

We spent the night resting, laughing, playing ping pong, doing homework and bonding as brothers.  I cannot stress enough to pledges and brothers that if you want to get to know each other on an entirely new level… go canning!

This canning trip was hugely successful.  Combined with our brothers who were also canning in Pennsylvania, we raised just around $3,000!  After this weekend, I am really looking forward to October and November for more canning memories!