Keep The Kids Running

Location: Girls On The Run

Date: Monday, March 25, 2013; 6:00-8:00 pm

In my illustrious career of getting lost en route to a project, never would I have thought a day would come when I would walk past the entrance to my designated CTA subway stop, a place which I have entered many times in the past. Well, today was that day.  I was lost in my own thoughts and walked straight past the entrance and only when I was a few blocks down, did I realize what I had done.  Then it was the usual rush to get back to the station and then to my final destination.  I arrived at the offices of ‘Girls On The Run’ and saw that Wilson was already there, along with several other volunteers.  Amanda, whom I had met on the ‘Get Crafty’ projects with Chicago Cares, arrived soon thereafter.  As mentioned before, she has a terrific taste in jewelry, and today she was wearing a brilliant ring.  Soon we were all called to order and the project was ready to begin.

Resident of Girls On The Run office

According to the description on One Brick’s website, ‘Girls on the Run is a life-changing, experiential learning program for girls age eight to thirteen years old. The programs combine training for a 3.1 mile running event with self-esteem enhancing, uplifting workouts. The goals of the programs are to encourage positive emotional, social, mental, spiritual and physical development.’  Our job this evening was to help organize some of the shirts that were going to be sent to various schools.  These were to be worn at the race that is being held on June 1^st.  One of the employees who worked for the organization was assigning tasks and required some volunteers to do a small project in the basement.  There were boxes that contained Tiaras, that were going to be handed to the girls at the race and they needed to be counted.  I said that I’d do it and so along with four other girls, including Amanda, I went down to the dungeons.  When I had woken up that morning, I had never thought that I would be counting tiaras in a basement. 

Tiaras everywhere

I started on a box and counted 99 tiaras.  I mentioned to everyone who was bothering to listen, which was nobody, that one was missing for an even 100.  On second count I realized that I had in fact missed one earlier, and there were indeed 100 tiaras.  With that sorted, we came upstairs to receive our next assignment.  We were waiting for the shipment of shirts to arrive, and which needed to be folded and put in boxes.  There were about 8000 shirts that were expected, and that would require all of us to divide and conquer.  However, there was no sign of the shipment yet and in the meanwhile, Amanda and I were assigned the task of cutting the paper with various school addresses into strips.  Besides the school address, the strips also contained information on number of shirts per school and the sizes that were to be sent.  We had to be careful to ensure that we had all the right information for each school on a strip and were not cutting wrongly, so as to include address of one school and quantities and sizes from another. 

Amanda and I chatted about other projects while this was going on and soon had gone through all the pages that were given to us.  Still there was no sign of shirts, and an announcement was made sheepishly that the shirts had been sent to a wrong address and they were not going to get to the offices that evening.  There was nothing much we could do without the shirts and thus keeping with One Brick tradition, we headed to a pub.  Tonight’s selection was a place called ‘Silver Cloud’. 

I sat between Amanda and Jeff, who was the coordinator for this event.  He said that One Brick was looking for someone to write their newsletter and I said that I may be able to do that.  Amanda and I were discussing some other projects, particularly the difference between Chicago Cares and One Brick.  I said that Chicago Cares had a completely different model and was definitely more ‘hands on’ with the client.  Wilson was listening in and asked what I had learned since I started to volunteer.  This was an interesting question and something I had not thought about.  I said that it was probably increased empathy, more patience and most importantly, knowing more about me, my likes and dislikes.  Someone asked Wilson who, besides him, was the most regular volunteer and he pointed at me.  Wilson then went on to say that he spent more time on  Valentine’s Day with me, than any other woman!  I shudder to think what others who heard this statement, without any context, may have thought. 

Wilson, who is an active volunteer and first responder with Red Cross, showed us pictures of some of the disaster and fire sites that he has been on.  He told us that one of his aims was to introduce One Brick to Red Cross training and culture, so as to prepare all of us for any eventuality in Chicago.  He told us about some simulation center they have on the outskirts of downtown, where they train people in case of fire emergencies, rescuing people from an overturned train and also driving simulators for a disaster site.  He said that one of his ambitions was to become a storm chaser!

We don't need no stinkin badges to serve

Amanda and I also talked about some other things such as our liking of tater tots and more importantly Humphrey Bogart.  This led to us discussing some of Bogie’s classics such as ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘To Have And Have Not’.  I am yet to see a more dominating screen presence that Bogie and a more electrifying screen duo than Bogie and Bacall in some of their movies.  But I digress.  I asked Amanda about her volunteering schedule and was delighted to see her pull out an old-fashioned appointment book.  Not a smart-phone calendar, but an appointment book.  How cool is that!  We left after a wonderful evening, and with Wilson’s newest idea ringing in our ears – getting an exotic animal like a Monkey for one of Lakeview Nursing’s ‘Pet Therapy’ sessions.  Knowing him, that’s probably going  to happen soon.