Location: Barry Elementary School
Date: Saturday, January 19, 2013; 7:30 am - 1:30 pm
Chicago Cares website had been
promoting this event for a long time. It
was a marathon session scheduled to run for the entire morning of the 19th. I did not know much about it and had in fact
scheduled another project for this Saturday morning. About 10 days prior to the event I was
looking at the website and saw that they were still short a couple of
volunteers. I read the description
again and saw that the only people eligible were those trained as Volunteer
Leaders, and I was not.
However, I decided to send an email to Jessica, the person mentioned on
the opportunity description, to ask if there was a way I could contribute. Not too much time had gone by before I
received a response – yes I could.
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| The words say it all |
She said that while it was true
that they only wanted volunteer leaders, there was no reason that I could not
be trained. There wasn’t much time left,
but if I was committed towards participating, they would make it so. I said yes and soon thereafter I was signed
up to be at this opportunity. I
cancelled my previously scheduled project and waited for further
instructions. I was contacted by Rich
Jablonski, who said that he would be coordinating my training. He said there was a training program
scheduled for one of the evenings, but I was doing another project then. He even offered to come over to one of my
project locations to train me after, but I did not want to make him come to me,
when I could go to their office; especially since it was very close to my work
place. So we scheduled a session over
lunch where I would go over to their office for an hour.
I arrived at their office at noon
and met Rich, who turned out to be a very friendly person. We went to his work area and he started
explaining about the project. Every year
in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Chicago Cares and Target, come together
to serve the community in a mega day of projects all across the city. While Chicago Cares provides volunteers to
lead the projects, Target commits employees by the thousands as volunteers who
actually do the work. This year we had
19 locations spread all over the neighborhoods and I was assigned to ‘Barry Elementary School’. There were 4 projects to be done at that
location and I would be leading one of them.
Thus, besides me there were 3 other volunteers and one volunteer leader
to manage the 4 of us. Plus there would
be a Chicago Cares staff member on site to liaison with the school officials
and to ensure we were getting all that we needed; and Rich would be
coordinating the effort from Chicago Cares office location to ensure everything
was running smoothly. It looked like a
very structured way of doing things and all that we would be responsible for
was managing our individual project, leading the volunteers from Target and
ensuring that the children had a great experience and school got the help that
it needed. No pressure.
Rich handed me a package of
documents which described the projects and the school. There were 4 main projects; two were projects
to paint either the Classroom or Hallway, whereas the other two projects were
with kids, one to run a Science Fair and other to do a Kids Olympics. He asked if I was leaning towards any project
in particular and I said that I may go for the science fair, though I would review
all of the information first. He asked
if I had any prior leadership experience and I mentioned my professional career
and some of the challenges and accomplishments therein. He seemed satisfied
with my credentials and then took me through some questions to see how I would
handle different situations were they to arise.
These were scenarios I could face with my volunteer staff, ranging from
disinterested people to conflict management to lack of supplies to time
management to even rudeness. I gave him
my answers and most of them were what he was looking for. He gave me my Volunteer Leader shirt and I
returned to my office with lots to think about.
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| Target store the night before |
Over the next few days I reviewed
the project specifications and really the choice was very simple. I am not athletically gifted, neither do I
have any painting experience other than the one room I did for my graduate
school buddy long time ago – and he still complaints about my work! So this left me with the Science Fair and I
decided to focus my attention on the specifics for that project. There were 8 experiments/activities that we
were to conduct, each at its own station: (1) Slime, (2) Handprint Tree, (3)
Flower In A Cup, (4) Paper Airplane Physics, (5) Parachute Launch, (6)
Whirlybird Helicopter, (7) Alka Seltzer Rockets and (8) Hoopster Airplane. I had done Slime plenty of times and
Handprint Tree and Paper Airplane looked straightforward. However, some of the other things required
great skill in making the props, something that I was severely lacking. I crossed my fingers that the Target
volunteers would be able to bail me out on this. I called Rich a few days before the event and
told him that I would like to conduct the Science Fair, though I would need a
lot of help in the execution. He assured
me that’s what the Volunteers were there for and all I had to do was make sure
everyone had fun.
The evening before the project, I
was headed for an event at ‘The Art
Institute Of Chicago’ and had some time to kill. I don’t know why, but I visited the new
Target store in the loop. As I looked
out on the street from the second floor, the giant target sign was hanging
behind me. Tomorrow I would be working
with people from this organization, helping them conduct a project that was a
part of a very special occasion. I was
excited, but at the same time aware of my responsibility. It had been only 4 months since I had started
with Chicago Cares, but what a journey it has been. Now for the first time, I was going to have
the privilege of being a Volunteer Leader.
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