Cleanup day

A bunch of very fine Lyric volunteers came down to the warehouse on November 1 for a day of much-needed cleaning. I mean, we clean up our rehearsal hall every four or five years whether it needs it or not!



Here's Sonja Biggs wielding the Lyric vacuum cleaner, which had grown exceedingly lonely over the past year or two. In the background is the shy, retiring ringleader of the effort, Cara Arellano.



Here's Atom Biggs, Sonja's husband, doing the previously unthinkable: shampooing our carpets. Turns out the carpet is not actually the color of three seasons of cookie crumbs and Coke spills!



Above is the downstairs hallway, after an encounter with a bucket of TSP and a floor scrubber. The dark streak down the middle is the former color of the floor. The actual clean color is on the sides.



Linda Reininger, longtime Lyric orchestra member, thought the cleanup day was October 31, came down to the warehouse, found no one there, and instead of giving up and going home, scrubbed the stairway handrail white again -- and then cleaned up the green room's bar area for good measure. And then came back on Sunday to help scrub stubborn spots out of the carpet.

Marilyn Wong and Steven Herzberg from Milpitas were our enthusiastic volunteers from the community, and we thank them for their hard work. Bob Reininger, Don K., Larry Byler, and yours truly also came to help.

Co-ringleader Sonja Biggs explained the importance of this effort well:

We are creating WOW moments for people when we have beautiful environments that we live and work in. People love giving to organizations that create wow moments whether it is in the look of our warehouse or the production on stage…beauty and quality bring forth the giving spirit in people!

Words to remember, don't you think? Well done, everyone.