It’s 5:30 am. My alarm clock goes off. I turn it off in a groggy, half-awaked state. Rolling out of bed, I fumble around to find a half-decent pair of jeans and a t-shirt, slap on a pair of tennis shoes and make my way towards the bus stop. For the next few hours, my Saturday morning will be spent at Cathedral Park, lending a hand for one of Ethiopia Project's 5-10k run events. Stopwatch in hand, I shout out times to the recorder as the runners cross the finish line. They then toss their shoes to the side, which will later be cleaned and sorted for donation to aspiring athletes in Ethiopia.
The weekend after that, I found myself on a camping trip teaching young girls survivor skills at Silver Falls State Park. I became well-cultured in the current media fascinations of 10-year old girls and also learned how to make an awesome cherry cobbler with cake mix, a can of Sprite and a cast-iron skillet. I then spent the next weekend obliterating poor unsuspecting archaic printers to harvest the parts for donation at Free Geek, a local non-profit focused on building computers for those who wouldn’t be able to afford them otherwise.
This was a typical month of my life throughout 2009.
My evenings and weekends became hectic, as I jaunted from one end of the city to the other. Some projects fell admittedly more on the enjoyable side, such as helping out at auctions and banquets (thus receiving delicious free food afterwards). Some projects, on the other hand, involved cleaning toilets or standing out in 18 degree weather to sell Christmas trees. With no hat.
Along the way, though, I met a lot of fascinating and somewhat quirky individuals. There was, for instance, the elderly war veteran that schooled me on the correct usage of a mop while I was cleaning up O’Bryant Square during Potluck in the Park, one of Portland’s largest outside meal services.
“You see,” he started, “When I was stationed on the U.S.S Missoura’, I was in charge of moppin’ the deck. The trick is to make the mop work for YOU!” He swayed the mop back and forth, and I still use his technique--it really works!
Then there were the discussions with other volunteers, such as the chat I had with my brochure partner at Mt. Tabor’s 100th Anniversary. A woman in her sixties, she had traveled all over the United States and had even lived in France for a few years, her children receiving a cross-cultural experience as well as becoming fluent in both English and French. While she and I greeted visitors, I mentioned to her how I was lamenting the fact that I was in my mid-twenties, with no husband or children on the immediate horizon and how much I fretted over the “freedom” I would have to give up when the time came.
"Don't worry about it" she said. "You're never too old to experience things. Look at the life I've lived, and look at the life I'm living now. My husband and I have a roadtrip planned this summer across the states; you never lose the chance to enjoy life at any age."
Some of my experiences also personified the thin line that often exists between financial security and homelessness. While I plopped a serving of spaghetti onto a plate one night at the Union Gospel Mission, one of the guests opened up to me about his current hardships. He was clean-cut, mentally sound and friendly in personality, with many of his belongings packed away into a local storage shed; he carried his daily necessities with him in his backpack. The job he had that provided him with income and secured housing had fallen through, so he was now homeless and taking refuge in shelters. He cried and shook my hand, thanking me for simply putting some donated food on his plate. To me it wasn’t a big deal, but to him it was a noted act of kindness and a free meal for which he was very thankful.
There are many other stories I could tell while I followed through on my resolution; it was truly a rich and rewarding experience, to the point that one article could never summarize adequately the personal growth I gained from this. Volunteering has now become a regular part of my life, and has helped me to appreciate the simplest of tasks as well as to broaden horizons when meeting those that live outside my typical realm of interaction. I have even become a Volunteer Leader for Hands On Greater Portland. I encourage anyone who is interested in exploring new personal avenues to give volunteering a try. You never know who you’ll meet or what stories you’ll come away with.
