Pennies For Patients Prep

Location: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2013; 6:00-8:00 pm

It was at a Chicago Cares project that I heard about One Brick, from none other than Wilson.  That night I went back home and looked up their website and their volunteer calendar.  This is a volunteer run organization which makes volunteering more easier than Chicago Cares, if that is possible.  According to their website, One Brick ‘Creates a friendly and social atmosphere around volunteering'.  Rather than working with children or providing human services for seniors, One Brick lends support to local non-profit and community organizations by helping them with several tasks which would take tens of man-hours otherwise.  Wilson was a leader over there as well, but the main reason I joined was something else. Besides an ‘Event Manager’, each event also has a ‘Event Coordinator’ who organizes a social outing for the volunteers after each event; where everyone gathers at a nearby bar or café.  Thus, the volunteers get to know each other in a social setting.  One of the reasons why I had started volunteering was with a hope of making new friends; and while I had met some remarkable people through Chicago Cares, I had not really socialized with them.  One Brick’s model sounded perfect.  Sign me up Scotty!

My first One Brick project

For my first event I volunteered to help out The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS), ‘Pennies For Patients’ program.  According to their website, LLS is the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to leukemia research; that ensures patients live better and longer lives.  I walked over to their offices after work and arrived to see that several volunteers had already assembled in a room with lots of boxes, brochures and other material required for this project. I checked-in with our Event manager Laura, who told me that this evening we would be helping to prepare boxes which would be sent to schools with instructions on how the children could participate in the ‘Pennies For Patients’ program. On since 1994, this program has raised millions of dollars in pennies and other spare change, through the efforts of more than 10 million elementary, middle and high school students throughout the country.  Each year over a three week period, students fill collection jars in their classrooms with spare change, which directly benefits LLS.  I learned that last year over $981,000 was raised in Illinois alone, with a $1 million goal being set for this year.  Olive Garden restaurant had also gotten involved by pledging a pasta party - under the name ‘Pasta For Pennies’ – for the top fundraising class at each participating school.  This just went to prove what I have observed over the last few months.  When it comes to doing something good; everywhere life is truly full of heroism. 

One of the welcoming faces at LLS

Most of the volunteers were regular at One Brick events and knew each other.  I was made to feel welcome and noticed one man, Peter, whom I had seen at my PADS event’s afternoon session.  Peter seems to classify as the person who tries to make a party lively through jokes and chatter.  As soon as he came in, everyone was expecting something and surely enough he did not disappoint.  This time it was a puzzle.  He asked that  if he had six coins, one of which was heavier than the other five; how would one be able to determine that in just two weighing  tries.  The answer was obvious to me but no one else seemed to get it immediately.  I said that you split them into two stacks of three and do the first weighing.  Then you take the heavier pile and do the second weighing with one coin each.  If the heavier coin was one of the two, it would show and if the weight was the same, then the third coin in that pile was the heavy one.  It was, of course, the right answer and I had either established myself as a semi-smart guy or an insufferable know-it-all.  

One of the LLS employees was guiding the project and she asked us to form an assembly line where the person in the front would start with an empty box, which would get filled with items as it moved down the line, with final few folks sealing the box and labeling it for dispatch.  What pleased me was that principles of ‘Lean Thinking’ were being employed and every effort was made to staff people to avoid bottlenecks.  They asked if anyone wanted to be a runner and I had a vague idea of what that meant from my PADS experience.  I said that I would do it, and my job was to take the finished boxes, put them on the cart and transfer them to the hallway where they would be picked up by the postal service the next day.  This seemed straightforward enough, though there were two things I had to be aware of.  First was that none of the boxes were to touch the walls of the hallway and I was to stack them 2 inches away from the walls and secondly, since each box had different quantity of items – depending on how big the school was – some boxes were heavier and thus needed to be at the bottom.  Despite these instructions, even I couldn't mess this up.

All stacked up; at least 2 inches from the wall

It took me multiple trips, but I was getting the job done.  After a few scrapes while maneuvering the trolley around corners, I was rolling quite efficiently.  As soon as three to four boxes were ready, I would transfer them. The one thing I missed out on was the conversations that were going on amongst the participants on the assembly line.  This was the main difference between Chicago Cares and One Brick.  Due to the extent of client interactions for a Chicago Cares project, the volunteers have limited conversations with each other; whereas over here the situation is exact opposite.  Perhaps it was because of our flawless coordination, but we got the job done very smoothly.  The LLS staff thanked us profusely and this meant there was only one thing left to do – head to the nearest pub.

I walked over there with Julie, who was the Event coordinator for this one and had thus picked out the place where we were headed.  We discussed a bit about One Brick and then everyone's favorite topic at events such as these, all over Chicago – Wilson!  We ended up in a place called ‘Dylans’ and I found myself sitting next to Dianna.  We started chatting about volunteering, our likes, arts, movies and pretty much everything under the sun.  The next few hours flew by as we talked like two people who had known each other for a long time, and not just met this evening.  Everyone else departed over time and I finally dropped her off at the train station, before taking a cab back home myself.  It had been a successful evening, for not only had I helped contribute to a great cause, I had also gotten to know someone.  Maybe this 'making new friends' thing may work out after all.