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| Tinkerbell |
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| Spiderman, Ninja and Poo Bear |
First of all, I want to admit to my 2 fans that I am a horrible volunteer.
Years ago, when the boys were all in grade school, and I had some extra time during the day, and I needed an excuse NOT to have time to exercise... I decided to seek out some charity work. I thought that this would be a good way to give back to the community. I had actually not done very much volunteering (outside of the kid's schools) and looked forward to the adventure. After much consideration, I decided that the program best suited for me was to deliver food to the elderly. It was a two day a week commitment for 3 hours each day. My job was to go to a local church hosting the food prep service, load my car with food boxes and assorted drinks, then drive to the eagerly awaiting hungry old people. As I packed my car with the lunches, I noticed that all of the other delivery volunteer helpers were so cheery. I could tell that they actually took pleasure in the work--it filled them up somehow. Ok - good. I wanted to be like that too!
I received the driving directions to the various apartment houses and started out my beneficence with a happy heart. The first destination parking lot was full. Parking was impossible due to the four door sedan Buick Electra-like vehicles taking one and a half spaces due to their sheer 1980 gas guzzling size. I tried not to be annoyed as I counted the spaces vs cars in the lot while I schlepped the cooler from a quarter mile down the street to the entrance of the building (47 cars and 75 marked spaces...). Upon entering the front door, I was overcome with a blast of heat wafting a smell combination of ca-ca, and pee pee. I wondered how long I could hold my breath...not long enough. In an effort not to gag, I chose to breathe only through my mouth even if it meant that my lips would no longer cover my dried out teeth. OK--just so you know--these places are really dingy. The lighting was yellow, the walls were covered in flocked yellow wallpaper which decorated the stained yellow velour chairs. I zig zagged my way around the halls to find the apartment number and knocked on the door. A giant old man with no shirt on and more chest hair than godzilla, answered the door. I hoped that my wide eyed, dry toothed face did not betray my sheer inner terror. This was a big, strong, ancient, half nakie guy. I kept saying to myself, “please don’t be a serial killer... please don’t be a serial killer”. After I introduced myself, he sort of grunted and then sat down at the table while I prepared his lunch. I took the time to surreptitiously observe him. Other than a disquieting resemblance to a Yetty, he looked able bodied to me. As I opened the milk carton for him , I couldn’t help but think, “you know mister-- you could probably open your own damn milk”.
And so it was at that point that I realized that I might not be perfectly suited for this type of charity work.
That being confessed... now that I have empty nesting time...I have started volunteering at the Glen Ellyn Children’s Resource Center. http://www.gecrc.org/ It is a great organization and I actually like going to the tutoring with the kids. We took them out for trick or treating yesterday. The kids were so appreciative as was the staff. They always need tutors and helpers for the kids. I highly recommend it. Since this comes straight from the computer of the most jaded of volunteers-- you know that this is a worthwhile activity.
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