Dodgeball, Drinking and the Common Good (or How I Learned How Not to Be a Douche) Part 1

This Saturday, I attended an event known as the "Sadie Hawkins Dance Party of Awesome" in Venice. This epic event was sponsored by a non-profit group called "The Eagle Rock Yacht Club".
Now you may be saying to yourself, "Hey, Eagle Rock doesnt have a harbor!" And you would be right. But that doesn't stop the Eagle Rock Yacht Club (or ERYC) from existing. Quite the opposite, in fact. In the 2(ish) years that I have been associating with the Yacht Club I've watched it grow, from a loose association of professional twenty and thirty somethings that got together once a week to play dodgeball, to a social juggernaut, capable of motivating and rallying HUNDREDS of people to raise funds for Los Angeles' youth programs.

The Yacht Club was the brainchild of Chris Alves and Craig Fowler, two hetero-lifemates with a vision. That vision was that once a week, a bunch of people would get together and throw balls at each other. Then afterwards they would go out for beer.

So how does THAT vision become a youth outreach program? Or a dance party that took over 2 floors of a boys and girls club? Or a social networking monster?

Because, Chris and Craig tapped into something. They also probably tapped some things, too. But what they discovered is that there is a NEED, for the children who grew up before the internet was ubiquitous, to actually just go out and play and talk.

With all this technology around us, I feel that the social fabric of society is quickly unraveling. I see the kids nowadays, and how they have no social skills and are afraid to get their hands dirty or sweaty. They ALL have iphones, or at least ipods, and they've learned to insulate themselves from being active. But for those of us that REMEMBER playing dodgeball in elementary school the appeal is clear. And the draw is simple.

Advertising dodgeball draws in all of us that are nostalgic for those elementary school days. But it's what the ERYC does after it draws you in that makes it special.

I've been to other co-ed sporting events, (soccer, KICK-ball, softball), and they were fun, but everything was very much face value. You expected to play softball and you did. And maybe you won. But with the ERYC, you expect to play dodgeball, and you do, but you don't expect to meet talented artists, musicans, photographers, graphic designers, computer programmers, teachers, and chefs (just to name a few). And maybe you meet someone who is looking for someone to help with a project, or maybe you get some digits from a pretty girl, or maybe you play a ridiculous game of Apples to Apples, or sing "Fuck You" to a bar full of lesbians. The point being, Chris and Craig understood how important it is to have the social aspect in place.

Now what do you do when you have a small army of hipsters at your disposal?

You mobilize them!

*it should be noted at this point that the term "hipster" is not meant as an insult or a jab, but almost as a term of affection. And certainly, not everyone that is involved with the ERYC wears V-neck sweaters and horn-rimmed glasses and has ironic facial hair. But I don't have a suitable term for the conglomeration of all of the different types of people that the ERYC attracts. So for now - "hipsters". The term douchebag, however, still retains its connotation.

To be continued in Part 2:
-How to Mobilize Hipsters WITHOUT PBR -