3-day Caring Marathon

I do enjoy volunteering around the city, but I’m thinking I may have taken it to an EXTREME this weekend. Please don’t start picturing me a Saint Rach or a Girl Scout, because clearly I spend loads of time and energy on personal pursuits/gains. And usually my volunteer events are spread out every few weeks.

Here is a quick recap of events from Friday to Sunday -

Friday
*Team building “Day of Caring” through a United Way agency called the Diocese of Memphis Housing Department down to the Cleveland & Jackson location, I knew this wouldn’t be a typical day. We entered a worn building in need of some freshening up. My work group with a team of other corporate citizens spent the day bonding over the numerous fences, rails and rooms that needed to be painted.

We passed the time away chatting and painting what seemed to be the longest fence EVER. And when we ran out of paint I got a chance to hone my non-existent gardening skills as we planted some flowers and mulched in the garden. Our reward at the end of the day was seeing a freshly painted and flowery Diocese of Memphis Housing Department. Plus we rewarded our good behavior with an early happy hour at Boscos…

Saturday
*Woke up at the crack of dawn to headed to Northhaven (an area in Frayser) to assist in a Habitat build. My friend Jan had set this adventure up for us, but backed out due to illness. But Julie and I pressed on to go work on the build. It truly was an adventure as we started the day attempting to put up baseboards. After some complications with the volunteer we were paired with, we somehow we are able to maneuver over to Amy’s painting squad. What Julie and I lacked in skill we definitely made up in with heart.

So I spent the morning painting and chatting with Sarah, Amber, Amy & Julie. As an added bonus I got to talk with the lady at length whose house we were working on. She’s was single mother of two from the Frayser area, whose husband has passed away a few years ago. She was probably in her early to mid-forties and this was going to be her first home purchase. I think she was most excited knowing that her son was going to be old enough in the coming week to help contribute some sweat equity onto the house too. At the end of my shift I left a little bit tired and dehydrated, but felt fulfilled knowing I was helping such a nice woman and her children take part in homeownership.

Sunday
*I wrapped up my volunteer hat-trick by escorting the 7th grade class from TI-Memphis to the The Food Bank. Normally these kids are engaged in social interaction with each other or their cell phones. But early on a Sunday morning we got a reprieve from their normal behavior. For over two hours they worked as a team to selflessly label plain white boxes of fruit loops that were donated by Kellogg’s. Since it was a donation, they sent over those plain, white boxes filled with cereal we all enjoy and pay a premium for to see Toucan Sam on our box. Yet the government won’t allow a food bank to distribute food without a label that includes nutritional/ingredient information. So we split up into teams and went to our make-shift workstation pallets that included printed copies of nutritional information and box tape.

It was amazing to watch as the kids and adults attack the task at hand. I think our small crew of 30 labeled about 1,000 individual plain, fruit loop boxes. I think the kids felt good that their small impact was going to affect so many families across the mid-south who can’t afford basic necessities like food. And I it was fun to hear some of them thinking out loud and trying to calculate how many meals each box would contain. I know the whole focus of the 7th grade program on repairing the world, but I hope the kids walked away learning how even simple physical tasks can ease the burden of our fellow man.

Lessons Learned
Giving money is a very noble way to accomplish a variety of goals, but giving of your time can be just as rewarding and fulfilling. And now that I’ve wrapped my marathon weekend of caring up, I feel proud of the work that was accomplished and happy to stand next to the folks who contributed along side of me. I wish we all have more time to donate to our special causes to help relieve the people and community that surround us. But until then I hope ya’ll have a happy start to the coming week.