Blogs

September 7, 2021
Midnight Madness Blog

Posted By Robert Mitchell At 10:36 AM

Dedicated volunteers at Ryerson at Eleven thirty last night
helping to insure things run smoothly at Midnight Madness

I briefly read something in a lesser paper whose writer was critical of volunteers and went on to write

"Instead, volunteers shouted for donors to come forward. Even when none did, we were left standing -- such as the high school history teacher and his wife standing behind me in line. With no information. When we asked for guidance, we were dismissed rudely by TIFF staff."

The volunteers I have met are helpful, dedicated and very polite. In fact at Midnight Madness many of us know our volunteers by name!

In case some of my fellow writers in this city forgot what indeed the word volunteer means I leave you with this from dictionary.com

vol·un·teer

[vol-uh

n-teer] Pronunciation Key –noun

1.	a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.

2.	a person who performs a service willingly and without pay.

Still blogging four days in, your man out on the street

Robert Mitchell

• Comments (4)

All praise to the volunteers! Hell, I used to be one! ;)

Comment By DirtyRobot At 07/09/2021 2:28 PM

Just an example of miscommunication and misinterpretations, add in a little telephone game, and you have a scoop. While any person can be unsavory on a given day, the sampling of volunteers I have witnessed has been nothing but accomodating; more than accomodating, in fact... and in no way should this negatively slanted account speak for the whole. These people are giving their time, for no other reason than they want to be there-- and it seems redundant that there would be any kind of conspiracy against the 'common' patron. The rush line, for me, has been one of my favorite experiences, brought me back again and again, because of the friends I've made there, and the cool perks of arriving first, waiting it out, reaping the benefits.

Comment By Darryl Shaw At 07/09/2021 3:02 PM

I've been given free tickets several times in the rush line, and personally witnessed 5 tickets given away before deadgirl. You can't call this an elitist festival-- TIFF is the largest festival in the world that has a public audience (Canne is industry only!) So let's all stay positive, stay excited, and be kind to each other, it's The Way of the rush line.

Comment By Darryl Shaw At 07/09/2021 3:00 PM

i've also given away tickets and seen tickets given away to people in the rush line.

that article just confused me. there aren't any examples of the rude treatment. there's just witnessing and accusations without support.

and for the record: the midnight madness volunteers have been nothing but lovely to me.

Comment By Carol Borden At 07/09/2021 3:30 PM

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