Four-Thirty and No Coffee

Brien McElhattan of ABC 15 preps for the 5:15AM morning show spot about Cuts for Kids in Ocotillo Hall on March 14, 2011, as the Midwestern University Pediatrics Club looks on. Beyond the doors lies the dark of early morning; in the foreground (right), Assistant Dean of Student Services Julie High Horse Munstedt's coffee maker percolates.

There’s a somewhat sublime feeling you get driving down the road at four-thirty in the morning. If you ask me, it’s due to fatigue.

Many traffic lights are set to flash amber or red, giving up their iron control of the traffic pattern because… well, there just isn’t a lot of traffic at four-thirty in the morning. Four-thirty in the morning is the eponymous “twilight zone,” after all the parties are over and before anyone with any sanity is up to go to work.

What there is a lot of at four-thirty in the morning is coffee. Anyone up that early – for any reason – is usually drinking some to stay awake. The sad few who don’t drink coffee, of course, have to resort to other methods, like rolled-down windows and singing loudly to some strident music that helps convince your brain that it is actually supposed to be conscious in the pitch-black dark of early morning.

Of course, I am one of those sad few who do not drink coffee, so there I was cruising down the road, breezing past flashing yellow traffic lights, window down, and Atomic Tom blaring from my CD player as I tried to keep my eyes from unfocusing.

What was I doing up at such an early hour? I had volunteered to oversee a series of live morning show segments being shot on campus for our annual Cuts for Kids charity fundraiser event on Monday, March 14. Cuts for Kids is a program that raises money for Phoenix Children’s Hospital and collects hair for the Locks of Love charity, which makes wigs for kids with medical hair loss.

When I arrived at Ocotillo Hall, I was met by a small army of Midwestern University Pediatrics Club students – most armed with hot coffee – and by Brien McElhattan, the reporter for our local ABC affiliate who was on hand to shoot the segments (and who had been drinking coffee, he told me, since three o’clock). Julie High Horse Munstedt, Assistant Dean of Student Services and the capo di tutti capi of Cuts for Kids, showed up moments later wheeling a cart that held – what else – a coffee maker.

You would think that at four-thirty in the morning, something would have gone wrong. Everyone was tired – as much because the actual Cuts for Kids event didn’t start for another twelve hours as the early hour – and people could be excused for a slip-up or two.

Not on our watch. Everything went swimmingly. The lights came on, the camera rolled, and everyone played their parts to perfection.

I’d like to think that my oversight of the shoot contributed to the eventual success of the Cuts for Kids event, but I know that the true heroes are Julie, Alicia Stone-Zipse and Kristina Bruns of the Pediatrics Club, and the yeoman-like efforts of Midwestern University’s students and the Cuts for Kids volunteers. Through their hard work and dedication, this year’s Cuts for Kids surpassed not only previous years’ totals but also the goals that the organizers had set. Over $5,000 was raised for PCH, and over 1,700 inches of hair are on their way to Locks of Love.

Sometimes, there are great reasons to be up at four-thirty in the morning… coffee or no coffee. I was a small part of a giant effort to make kids’ lives better. If that isn’t worth a few hours of lost sleep, I don’t know what is.

Brien speaks to the camera during the 5:15AM segment. ABC 15 featured two more segments on Cuts for Kids at 6:15 and 9:15AM. The few folks who aren't smiling probably didn't have their coffee yet.