It
seems like yesterday that I was writing my 100th blog post and now
here we are, at 200. It was Spring back
in May when I talked about my incredible experiences till then and now there is
snow outside the window and the year is winding down; with only a few short
days before it all starts again - new resolutions, new wishes, and a renewal of
faith in the same hopes and dreams. Perhaps
it is apt that the 200th article has coincided with this time of the
year and it is an opportunity to look back at some of the remarkable projects
that I have had the privilege of sharing over the last 100 posts. While every project has been dear to me, I
have selected 3 that I would like to recall again. There is one each from the 3 main
organizations that I have the honor of being associated with – Chicago Cares,
Make-A-Wish Foundation and One Brick.
Any project owes its success to 3 main reasons – the volunteers, the
organization that enables the interaction with the clients and of course, how
effectively the clients are being served.
All of these selections exemplify these qualities and in doing so have
made me a believer.
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| My wonderful team at Serve-A-Thon |
Back
in June I was the Primary Leader for one of the sites during Chicago’s single largest day of service. I had managed to
recruit two of Chicago Cares top leaders to be on my team and we were at a site
that I was quite familiar with, having visited there several times for an
ongoing project. However, on the day of
the event we started hitting several road bumps and it took not only the
collective leadership of the three of us, but also incredible support from our
40+ corporate volunteers to achieve our goals for the day and provide the
residents with a wonderful experience. They
had been brilliant in their work ethic, interactions with the seniors, as well
as their general attitude towards the project.
Nothing drags a project down like disinterested volunteers and our team
had done nothing of the sort. The glowing
praise that we had received from the residents as well as the site representatives
was a testament to that and I couldn’t have been prouder of everyone.
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| The balloons at Children's Picnic |
I
had done Make-A-Wish Children’s Hospital project before - for UIC’s Thanksgiving Party last year. So I knew what to
expect when I attended the summer picnic at Comer Children’s Hospital. But nothing had prepared me for what I saw
there in terms of the generosity of spirit and the commitment exhibited by the doctors
and nurses of the hospital. Their
efforts towards making this a day to remember for the children made me
realize that while volunteers like us help a lot in bringing a smile to these
children, these doctors and nurses are the real heroes. They are the ones who are fighting every day to
try and give these kids a chance at a normal life…any life. And it isn’t just the children; it’s their
families as well; the ones who look at these faces every day for empathy, for
compassion and for hope. The staff of
Comer greeted each family as friends and based on what I saw, it is safe to
assume that for them, none of these kids is just a patient or as the Hippocratic Oath says, a chart or a
symptom.
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| The wall in the 'Healing Garden' at Ronald McDonald's House |
Over
the course of last 15 months, I have visited several Senior Centers, Nursing
Homes, Shelters, Schools and even Hospitals.
And for most parts, they have looked like Senior Centers, Nursing Homes,
Shelters, Schools and Hospitals. Almost
all of them serve a low-income community and rely on the generosity of others
in their continuing efforts to fulfill their mission. So as long as the clients are comfortable and
their needs are being met, it is difficult to imagine anything more than basic
amenities being available at these sites.
That’s why Ronald McDonald House was such a shock for me. Right from its kitchen, to rest of this
extraordinary facility, no efforts had been spared to make this one-of-a-kind
haven for families dealing with a stressful situation involving treatment of
their child at a neighboring hospital.
The living facilities and the recreation areas seemed appropriate for
visiting political dignitaries, let alone people who may not even be able to
afford the optional $10/night donation request.
While it would be easy for the sites such as these to make excuses for
sloppiness, Ronald McDonald House dares to proclaim that, “No, we are not going to compromise on any comfort that our guests require.” And it’s not just throwing money at the
problem. The people working there are
genuine and they care for the well being of the kids and their families…and they
grieve with them when something unfortunate happens.
These
three are just some of the examples of heroism that I have witnessed, or
even come to expect. "Come to expect"…I
wonder if that is even fair for me to do so.
Just because I may feel differently, or want to do things in a certain
way, does not mean that others have to follow.
And who’s to say my way is right.
For all the heroes that I have seen, there have been some
disappointments, some self-made. Yes, I
have complained about some of the projects and how I would like to see things
been done differently. But is it really
fair for me to do so? After all, I am not
there every day. I do not know what
those people have been through. All I
can do is go and try my best, lead by example and attempt to make a difference. The rest is out of my hands. Very often
people create misery for themselves by worrying about things which are not in
their control, rather than focusing on things that they can change. And what does that bring – bitterness,
regrets and some amount of loneliness. Volunteering
is trying to do something good for the others and the last thing that it should
result in, is discontentment for the person themselves. At
the end all that matters is you tried. Couple
of such things happened in my Company recently.
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| The cupcakes as consolation prize |
The
first was a contest where 30 people were to be selected for a breakfast at the Signature Lounge’ on the 96th
floor of Hancock Tower. The way to win
was for one of your colleagues to nominate you via email, giving a reason why
the nominee deserved to go. They were
going to select nominees receiving most votes or a compelling argument, as well
as a few of the nominators through a lucky draw. I nominated one of my colleagues and was
pleased to see his name show up on the invitee list, along with mine. However, not everyone could go and it was a
shame, because I felt that every nominee deserved to be recognized, and if I
was going as a nominator, the others who had spent time writing a nice note
also merited some applause. So I asked
the person who had organized this for a total number of people who had missed
out and it was 30. I thought it would be
nice for them to receive a consolation prize and so placed an order with ‘More Cupcakes’ for 30 assorted cupcakes
to be ready in individual boxes the next day.
After breakfast, I picked up the order and rode a cab back to the office
and handed the cupcakes to my colleague who had initiated this outing. She then inserted a thank you note for the
remaining nominees, along with their actual nomination email, and hand
delivered it to their desks. We felt
that we had done our job and so imagine my disappointment when I learned how
much bitterness there was towards my colleague, whom everyone felt had
manipulated the voting to select people who got to go. Nothing could be farther from the truth. First of all, she had won this breakfast in a
contest and was under no obligation to organize this event. Secondly, she had been fair in her selections
and if there was a way that she could have invited everyone, she would have
done so. Finally, both of us tried to do
a good deed through these cupcakes and all that led to were snarly remarks like “All we get are these when the rest went for
a fancy breakfast”. But even then, I
feel she did the right thing in conducting the contest. I did the right thing in getting those
cupcakes. Yeah, we probably upset more
people than we pleased, but I guarantee we made a difference to some people’s
morale. And as I have stated in the
past, I would consider pleasing just one person a necessary good.
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| My 191 notes |
The
second was when the HR department came up with a plan for an ‘Employee Recognition Week’ and besides
all sorts of splendid activities to build rapport and morale, there was one
which caught my eye. We were encouraged
to write ‘Appreciation Notes’ for a
specific employee and which would be posted on a ‘Wall’ for all to see, including the employee for whom the note was
written. It was a great way to show your
fellow colleagues that you cared, and it would accomplish several things like
building trust, improving culture and eventually, increased productivity. The initiative began on Monday, and by Wednesday
the wall was starting to fill up. But
there are a lot of employees and I saw that less than half had actually received
a note. So I made a request for a list
of names who hadn't received a note, because I felt that every single person
deserves to have their name on the wall.
The response I got was that this information is confidential. Let’s pause to examine the absurdity of this
statement. Our Company directory is
available for all to see and if I really wanted to get the names, all I needed
to do was stand in front of the wall and identify the people without a note
through a simple process of elimination.
But I did not want to make a show of it.
So on Thursday evening after everyone had left, I sat down and
hand-wrote 191 appreciation notes for all of my colleagues in Chicago and some
in other parts of the country. It took
me over two hours and at the end of it my hand resembled a claw. All the notes were anonymous and I left it on
the front desk with the only expectation that they would make it
either on the wall, or to the individuals, so that even the shyest person who
sits by themselves in a corner knows that someone appreciates them. The week ended a few months ago and to this
day I do not know what happened to those notes since no one received them. A year ago I would have been bitter, angry,
felt betrayed. Today I just smile and
think to myself that I did what I could. The
rest is out of my hands and people have their reasons for doing things in a
certain way. And if that way is for them
to tell every employee that they are appreciated in a different way, then it would
have served the same purpose as my note.
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| 'The Employee Appreciation Wall' - none of these are mine |
But
there have been far more positives than disappointments for it to affect me. Plus if anything, last year has taught me the
virtue of patience and how one should try seeing things from different points
of view. My good friend once told me
that every person should try giving a bit of their “time, talent or treasures” to help the community. Then she said that I did all three of those
and it should make me proud. Well, it’s
been 200 blog posts worth of projects and yes, I am proud of everything that I have achieved so
far. But there’s still a long way to go
and so many other dreams that I've yet to find.
In the meanwhile, I will continue to look for more heroism everywhere…on every
street.
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