EVERY CITY NEEDS A TINY 🙂
“Just walk straight ahead, Marck!” I yell to Marck, who is on his way to the Serve the City’s kick-off event with his white visually impaired cane. “No not there!” The road is busy and I am awkwardly trying to park my cargo bike, whilst at the same time trying to guide Marck safely to our location. Suddenly I hear a man behind me say, ”What is Tiny doing?”
Tiny is the name of my cargo bike…. Tiny. However tiny is not tiny at all. Tiny is a big bakfiets. I reply “Just a moment I have to … Marck!” When Marck is safely back on the sidewalk I say as calmly as I can, “Tiny provides connection.”
I tell the man, that Tiny Buurthouse is the smallest community center in Amsterdam and that we are about to bake pancakes in this community with our organization, Serve the City Amsterdam.
The man, Tiny, and I block the road so that Marck can calmly cross. A car driver yells at the man to move past and another car almost runs into Tiny and honks.
“Well, the city could use a Tiny,” jokes the man unimpressed by the traffic frenzy.
“During Corona, I also baked pancakes,” he says “and I also want to volunteer again.”
“Come to the kick-off then!” I say. He promises and turns out to be a man of his word.
He comes in, looks around and tells me there is such a nice atmosphere among the volunteers in the room and before he knows it another volunteer speaks to him and he becomes a part of the group.
What he said is true, I also feel the love, openness and sense of community we have. Everybody is there for a shared goal; getting to work in the city and helping others.
Later in the day, I run into him again, he taps on his breast pocket where his cell phone is and says, “I have the website you know, I’ll join soon too.”
So cheers to Tiny, thanks for offering a joyful invitation to connect.
Credits for the bakfiets: Studio Pancake
p.s. in case you were wondering what happened to Marck. He shined as an extra during the filming of a “to be too crazy” promo movie & he made it home safely. 😉
