Date: Saturday, April 13, 2013; 9:50-11:30 am
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| The art in the classroom |
I was signed up to do a project
at Lakeview Pantry and in fact had done so right after my first visit there back in
February. However earlier that week
Sara, the Volunteer leader, posted on LinkedIn discussion board that she
required volunteers. I replied saying I
would change if she was still short towards the end of the week. When a similar posting was made on Friday, I
switched projects and apologized to the leader at Lakeview Pantry. The previous evening I received another email
from Chicago Cares saying that they needed volunteers for the ‘Shopping On Lake’ program. I wrote back saying as much as I would love
to help out with all these programs, even I couldn't be in three places at the
same time. Who did they think I was, Wilson! Speaking of whom, the great sage Wilson tells
me that he usually checks which projects have the greatest need and signs up
for those on the day of. Now I am not as
selfless as that and usually try to go to projects that I feel I am going to
enjoy. Art Smart was a program I
liked and I had no issues in going there.
Thus the next morning I found myself taking a long bus ride to the
Brunson Elementary School.
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| Sara's recycled paper |
I was the first of the volunteers
to get there and was looking at some of the art in the classroom, when Sara arrived. She had recruited her visiting sister Susan to come help out and alongside them was another volunteer Bari, who is a regular at this program. Today we were going to be working on projects to celebrate‘Earth Day’ and that included decorating tote bags and making
recycled paper. When Sara pulled out a
blender, I was a bit surprised, but apparently that was the main tool that we
would be employing today. She then
showed me a sample that she had tried at home and while it in no way resembled
paper the way I knew it, I took her word for it.
The kids all came in and Jada,
with whom I had worked in the past, and who is one of the most level-headed
girls I have met, was chatting with Bari.
She said that she was moving away and this would be the last time she
and her twin Kenneth would be attending the project at Brunson. She seemed sad and resigned and said that it
was going to be her 6th school change. Seeing her young age, that is just not
right. She said the most difficult part
for her was having to make new friends. I understood her frustrations and it was
truly sad that she and Kenneth had to go through this. But this did not dampen either of their
enthusiasm for today’s projects.
.JPG) |
| The decorated tote bags |
The first activity was decorating
little tote bags and the idea was to have their own bag to carry stuff, rather
than use plastic. Sara had brought
different colors and Kenneth wanted to color his with orange. He could not find it so I suggested that he
mix red with yellow to make his own orange.
These got him going and then I saw that his brother was trying to paint
the symbol of ‘X-Box’ on his
bag. He could not remember how to get
the ‘X’ right and we looked at it on
my phone. In the meanwhile the girls
were doing an excellent job with their bags and soon we had a selection of bags
being displayed on neighboring table. Susan,
who looked like an accomplished artist, has painted an apple tree on a paper
plate and it was one of the best things that was made that day.
While all of this was going on,
Sara started reading some of the ‘Earth
Day’ facts and then decided to have a fun quiz. The kids loved that and we were all into
it. Some of the things I learned were
that when it all started, the ‘Earth Day’
was celebrated on March 21st because it is the first day of spring. I also learned that the first ‘Earth Convention’ was held in Sweden
and that the first national park was ‘Yellowstone’. I asked the kids if they knew how many
National Parks there were and told them that the number was 58, since nobody knew that
answer. Despite all of this fun, we had one hour to go, and it was time
to bring out the blender.
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| The blender for recycled paper |
The first thing Sara had the kids
do was shred paper from magazines. As
the kids did that, I saw the girls look at bags and shoes in the advertisements and comment on them. Women and their shopping, no matter what the age! The boys found some racy pictures of models and I told Sara that we should perhaps stick to‘Sports Illustrated’ - as
long as it wasn't the swimsuit issue! Once we had enough shredded pieces, Sara added them to the blender with
some water, corn starch and food coloring of the kid’s choice. Then we blended it together, poured into a strainer
and drained the water by squeezing it out.
Then the wet mass was dumped on a plate and spread out, trying to get as
much water out as possible. This plate
would need to be dried overnight in order to get the recycled paper. The kids loved this and soon there was a big
line to get their own paper made, though none of them wanted to squeeze the
water out. They found that task
disgusting and so I became the person doing that role and everyone came to
me. While we tried to do as many as possible, we soon ran out of time.
.JPG) |
| Susan's 'Earth Day' Apple tree |
Many kids took their recycled
paper sample home with them while Jada and Kenneth wished everyone
goodbye. I was going to miss the two of
them and hopefully will run into them through some other program in the future. I took Susan’s plate with the apple tree for
my office wall and before we left, Sara told us about the trip to the zoo on June 1st. That is a busy
weekend for me, but I will try to find a way to attend. I rode back to downtown on a bus with Gil, a volunteer
who had arrived late. I had no regrets
about coming here and picking this project over the other one. It had been another educational morning and I
had learned how to make recycled paper, using a blender. But anyone who wants to do this at home,
there is a warning. That blender is
pretty much going to be useless for any food related items after that. But Sara had not minded that at all and it
was perhaps the best use of blender that we could have made that morning. My hands were blue from the food coloring and
considering where I was headed for my next project that day, it was going to
interesting.
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