Let’s recap the moment the award was announced:
As you can see in this video, I didn’t initially react because I didn’t expect to win. After receiving the award, I fully grasped the situation. After that moment, the managers of all the food banks began celebrating one by one. Before I even fully grasped what was happening, I suddenly found myself in the middle of a huge celebration. Everyone was coming up one by one, making comments like, “Let’s take a picture with the champion.” Some food bank managers started bombarding me with questions, asking, “How can I get more information from you?”
I found myself in a dream I hadn’t planned. Amidst these celebrations, I sent a WhatsApp message to the TIDER volunteer group about our win. Since it was late in Türkiye, I figured everyone was probably asleep. Suddenly, three or four replies arrived, some saying, “I woke up because of the messages.” The number of messages continued to increase, even though it was already midnight in Türkiye. Because of my perception management skills, no one expected to win such an award. I fueled the excitement through WhatsApp.
After taking photos with the Asian and Latin American participants, the entire group gathered and boarded the bus. What the hell? I realized I’d forgotten my credit card holder. I immediately asked the driver, stopped the already-moving bus, and ran inside the Houston Foodbank to retrieve the card holder from where the photos were being taken. I hurried back to the bus. Meanwhile, all the participants were watching me. As I reboarded the bus, I was a little embarrassed to say, “Excuse me,” but the food bankers, who had been watching me from beginning to end, greeted me with laughter. My panic quickly gave way to joy. I continued to chat pleasantly with those around me along the way.
Escape from the skidding truck
Then we arrived at the hotel. I collected my luggage, rested for half an hour at the hotel, chatted with friends in the lobby, and then hopped in a taxi and headed for the airport. A strange thing happened in the taxi. We were chatting with the Ethiopian driver. With typical Serhan attitude, I climbed under and over Ethiopia, asking a multitude of questions, from why he chose to come to America to the future of Africa. I listened to an interesting life story. Then there was silence for a while. While I was reading my phone’s messages, the taxi driver, realizing he was about to miss the highway exit, made a sudden move into the right lane. A truck coming from the adjacent lane didn’t yield and instead sped past us at full speed. He was going full throttle, and the trailer he was carrying was thrown left and right. In those seconds, we avoided a major accident. We were speeding down the Houston highway and nearly ran under the trailer. I saw the accident coming and shouted to the driver, “Watch out, you’re going to get run over by the truck.” The driver, who had come to his senses at my shout and noticed the trailer approaching, swerved sharply to the left, only to save himself by clipping the car’s right mirror. Meanwhile, I was sitting on the right side of the back of the car. So, if I had been run over by a truck, the part of the car where I was sitting would have hit the trailer first, and as you can imagine, the right rear section of the car would have been totaled. God forbid!
The mirror had completely ripped off the car. And then, of course, trying to cross into the right lane without a mirror created a whole new level of excitement. I asked the man, “Are you aware we just had a major accident?” He replied, “Yes, I know. Thanks to him, we saved you,” and pointed to the huge cross on the front of his car. And I stopped saying, “If I hadn’t yelled to warn you, we’d be under the truck right now.” I just wanted to get to the airport safely. Nothing else mattered.
At that moment, I smiled to myself as I remembered another incident I’d experienced the night before, which could have been a life-or-death situation. After the conferences concluded the night before, we all went to the Rodeo with the Australian, South African, British, and Mexican food bank managers I’d developed close friendships with, along with an American friend who works at the GFN (everyone from a different country, as the jokes say). The Rodeo was essentially a large amusement park. One section of this park featured performances by crazy rodeo performers trying not to fall off a bull. Other sections featured classic amusement park-style structures, shops, and places selling junk food like hamburgers and hot dogs. We all lost track of each other as we queued up at the various fast-food restaurants next to each other to grab a bite to eat (I chose hamburgers). Eventually, we ran into each other again and went for a drink at a place with live music. As the conversation continued, a Houston native joined us at the next table. Here’s the selfie we took together at the Rodeo entrance:
From left to right: Me, Kate from South Africa, David from Mexico, Brianna from Australia, David from the USA and William from the UK.
A complete panic of disaster
As I was chatting with him about Houston culture, a stream of people suddenly began to pass us, shouting and screaming. Someone in our group called out to the seemingly endless stream of people, “What’s going on?” A girl, with a look of panic on her face, ran away, screaming, “There’s been a shootout, someone’s shooting!” At that moment, I thought, “I wonder where the shootout happened? I can’t hear any gunfire,” and I got up and tried to locate the scene. When I turned around, I realized half the people in our group had vanished. My British and American friends were left with me. They asked, “What should we do?” I replied, “Where are the others?” They said, “They just disappeared.” So I said, “Let’s at least head for the door.” We’ll wait a bit and see where we’ve designated the meeting place. Unlike the others, we walked calmly toward the entrance. There was no threat; it must have been a misunderstanding that caused the panic. As we walked toward the entrance, our British friend said he wanted to buy a hat. We calmly headed towards a half-open shop on the side of the road. We stopped in front of the shop he entered while he bought his hat, then waited for the rest of the group for about 10 minutes by the statue right by the entrance. No one was there. We couldn’t reach anyone on the phone either. All the lines were jammed. After 10 minutes, I said, “Let’s get out of here; they’ve probably returned.” We walked out of the Rodeo area together. All hell was breaking loose. At this amusement park, we felt like we were in the middle of a Hollywood action movie. Probably a misunderstanding, we were surrounded by security guards, police cars, helicopters flying overhead, and people running around shouting and screaming. Unlike them, we calmly went out, went to the gas station on the corner, called an Uber, and returned to the hotel. The other friends had already arrived at the hotel and were sitting at the bar. You can imagine the excitement when we met up with them. My first reaction was to ask, “How did you manage to disappear as soon as I turned my head?” Our South African friend replied, “How could someone like you react so slowly?” I replied, “I don’t think there was any gunfight near us. People were panicking unnecessarily. If I’d thought there was a conflict around us, I would have been the first to react. Don’t worry.” Of course, the banter continued throughout the night. My trip to Houston was truly interesting.
This is the picture I took right after leaving the Rodeo. Those attending the Rodeo were making a concerted effort to get away quickly, either on foot or in their vehicles.
Being Welcomed Like a Football Player
While pondering all this in the taxi, we arrived at the airport. After checking in and going through the checkpoints, I sat in the airport foyer and called my friends in the US. Because of the time difference, I couldn’t call Türkiye. I just sent a few messages. Our TIDER volunteers were thrilled. They kept typing, regardless of the time difference. As I was discussing the importance of this award, the words that came to mind suddenly flowed from the keyboard: “This is such a significant international achievement that if I were a football player, they would be greeting me on their shoulders at the airport,” I said.
After a comfortable journey, I arrived home. A direct flight from Houston to Istanbul is truly a wonderful opportunity.
Seeing my team, who had taken my words seriously before boarding, come to greet me at the airport was an added joy. As soon as I exited, I saw TIDER professionals Selen, Duygu, and Selin, and our board member Nigar, waiting for me on the right. I immediately went over to them and presented the award and certificate to the team. With such enthusiasm, we took a picture:
From left to right: Selin, Duygu, me, Nigar and Selen
Afterward, as I was getting ready to say goodbye to my friends, I heard something like, “Aren’t we going to celebrate?” They didn’t say it directly, but I realized they really wanted to celebrate. I said, “Let’s go to a fish restaurant here.” I don’t know much about the area near the airport, but I remembered the Polat Renaissance Hotel, where I’d had a fish dinner and enjoyed it before. We all went to the fish restaurant inside the hotel.
Over a pleasant conversation about rakı and fish, I told them about my experiences in America and then discussed what we needed to do next. After our short celebration, we said our goodbyes, and I headed home.
On the way home, my doctor friend Macit called and said, “Let’s go out tonight.” I was tired from the trip, but I somehow had enough energy. So, I decided I’d better go out with Macit and continue the celebration. After getting ready, we went home and went to Soho House together. We enjoyed the award there for a bit.
The weekend had intervened, but the congratulatory messages kept coming. A few days after the FBLI event in Houston, GFN made the official announcement:
https://www.foodbanking.org/11th-annual-h-e-bgfn-food-bank-leadership-institute-equips-hunger-fighters-new-tools-help-need
The following week, I spoke with Jale Özgentürk from Hürriyet to tell her about the award. Jale Özgentürk wrote the following in her column:
Afterwards, we continued to share our communications with the press. I’d like to share some of the articles we published:
Meanwhile, on Thursday, 23 March, we gathered at the Support Market to celebrate this award with all our stakeholders. I briefly explained the story behind the award and thanked all our supporters wholeheartedly. Everyone was delighted. Ultimately, everyone deserves this award. The colorful images emerged:
I would like to thank Itır, the founder of Adım Adım, for taking and sharing this candid photo.
A frame taken while the videos were shown to the participants
The frame where all hearts beat together. Thank you everyone!
Pride reflected on the face
Here’s our video about the event:
We’d like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to Harun Kolçak’s concert in support of TIDER on Sunday, 9 April. We look forward to seeing you.
Last week, I thanked everyone who sent us supportive messages on the Adım Adım platform. I would like to reiterate the message in my email here:
Thank you so much for the congratulations and warm wishes you’ve sent us through various channels (email, social media, WhatsApp, SMS, etc.) since last week. A special thank you goes to Kıvanç (Adım Adım‘s term president) and Itır (Adım Adım‘s founder), who joined us for our celebration last Thursday and then shared their thoughts on social media.
Universal values and service to humanity
In all my meetings with the media and other stakeholders, I tried to convey the following message:
It was a first for a program launched in Türkiye to gain international recognition. The Support Project we initiated also prioritizes sustainability. Therefore, vocational training and waste management are also key components of our project.
Providing food and basic needs support to those in need alone does not eliminate existing problems; on the contrary, it can exacerbate them. Therefore, the fact that a human resources project won the food banking award is a revolutionary achievement, demonstrating that the social assistance system will change globally. The fact that this change is starting in Türkiye is a source of both pride and joy for us.
As I conveyed these messages to everyone, I also had the opportunity to reflect on my past efforts and my future. I’ve been making significant sacrifices in my life for a long time. Seeing the fruits of this hard work in every field truly makes me happy. The trip to Houston was a significant source of motivation for me in this regard.
It is essential for all my work to be structured internationally and to carry important missions that serve humanity. With all the commercial and social initiatives I initiate, we will continue to uphold universal values and do our utmost to advance humanity and raise its level of prosperity. Stay tuned…
2017 GFN Innovation Award
GFN Innovation Award Certificate
Tag: culture
