Location: Belmont-Cragin Elementary School
Date: Saturday, October 5, 2013; 8:15 am-3:00 pm
With this Chicago Cares, ‘Corporate Volunteer Program (CVP)’ on
Saturday, I accomplished two unique things for the very first time. Ever since I have started volunteering, I had
never done projects 7 days in a row.
Today was my 7th day, starting with the ‘Alzheimer’s Walk’ last Sunday. Secondly, I had done the Chicago Cares’ ongoing
programs dealing with ‘Hunger and Homelessness’, ‘Child Services’, ‘Human Services’ and ‘Environmental’. I had done the Annual events such as ‘Celebration Of Service’ and ‘Serve-A-Thon’, as well as ‘Youth In Services’ project. Today with the ‘CVP’, I had done what very few volunteers get to do - attend all the
types of projects Chicago Cares has to offer.
In terms of volunteering with Chicago Cares, I had hit for a cycle!
I was on the mailing list for
CVP, but most of the projects were during the daytime. That made sense since many Companies organize
these corporate outings as a part of their workweek. Chicago Cares helps in the project management
by identifying a site based on the Company needs, designing the project,
arranging for supplies, delivering them at the site, and then sending over
volunteer project leaders to manage the projects. When I saw an opportunity for a project on a Saturday, I wrote to Tracey at Chicago Cares to inquire. I
talked with her on the phone and she said that this was unique since instead of
a corporate team, we were dealing with a group of kids attending a ‘Bat Mitzvah.’ Thirteen-year-old Sabrina Morris had chosen
this as her ‘Bat Mitzvah’ present and
had recruited 150 of her friends to do a day of service at Belmont-Cragin
Elementary School. My first thought was,
wow. What a novel idea. Another one followed this though – Wait, she has
150 friends!
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| Welcome Sign |
I signed up as one of the 6
leaders and later received an email from Claire, our Primary Chicago Cares
leader, that I had been assigned to a landscaping project. No, not after some of the other landscaping
type projects that I had done. I told
her that I was not interested in landscaping and she said no problem, and put me
in charge of making 'Planter Boxes'. This
was another issue since I am poor in carpentry.
In fact, one may go as far as saying that I have not done much of
it, not counting the woodworking course for engineering. She said that not to worry, since
plenty of help would be present on site.
Beside this and the landscaping project, some of the other ones were, making
murals, making plywood murals, mosaic tiles and making cubbies and other
benches. Well, other tasks had already
been assigned and so I guess I would be doing carpentry.
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| The staging area |
Claire has asked us to arrive at
the school by 8:15 in the morning and I had decided to take a cab. However there were some road closures and
with delays, it was 8:30 by the time I reached the school. I arrived to see one of Chicago Cares’ staff
members, Andrew, unloading a van. He
told me that all the supplies had been assembled in the gymnasium and that’s
where I would find Claire as well. He
tried to give me directions to where the gymnasium was, but the school is
massive and I got lost a couple of times before finally locating the
place. Claire showed me where all of my
supplies were located on the stage, and the station on the big floor where I
would be working. The first task was to
carry all of the wooden planks and tools down to my station and arrange
everything by groups.
I laid down blankets, so as not to spoil the wooden floor, and then
after several trips had managed to put my supplies on there, separated by the
types of wood, tools required at each stage and general supplies like gloves
etc. I read the instructions and tried
to visualize what we would be building.
In any case, there were other Chicago Cares staff members leading
carpentry projects nearby, and I told them that I may need their help should
things go wrong.
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| The supplies |
The Principal of the school had
brought in some 'Dunking Donuts' and cold coffee as breakfast, and it was better
than nothing. I had some coffee as I
studied the instructions again and it looked like a lot of hammering was going
to be involved. This could potentially
prove to be a problem since my fingers were extremely sore from the burns that I
had suffered at last evening’s project.
But, I was hoping that the kids would do most of the work and I could
just supervise. I went downstairs at 10
am, where the kick-off would happen in a room that looked like an assembly area. This was also the place where the Mosaic and
Plywood Mural projects were being staged.
I saw Meredith who does the Chicago Cares ‘Youth In Services’ projects and I told her about my accident from
yesterday. She seemed alarmed,
especially since safety is of vital importance at these projects, and I assured
her that none of the youth were ever at risk, and that I should have been more
careful. Also present as one of the
leaders was Christine, my Primary Leader from the ‘Celebration Of Service’ project.
We were catching up when the group arrived. When I say group, it was mostly 13-year old
girls, with a few boys here and there.
Uh oh, hopefully I wasn’t going to embarrass myself in front of them!
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| The wooden planks |
As is the norm with Chicago Cares
project, the speeches started with Claire thanking everyone for coming for this
day of service. The Principal talked
after her and really got the crowd excited with her energy and enthusiasm. Then Sabrina’s mom spoke and we saw a video
montage of Sabrina’s life thus far, starting from her birth. The 2nd of three sisters, there
were several pictures of her with her family and her friends. She was what any teenage girl her age would
be, carefree and excited. Her friends
cheered loudly at each picture and it really looked like they all wanted to be
here. Time had come to allocate
resources and Claire said that half the people were required to stay downstairs
and half were to come upstairs for the carpentry and a murals project. Surprisingly, many got up for the project
upstairs and we all made our way to the gymnasium. As I walked upstairs, there was a little girl
with me with her arm in a sling. I
chatted with her and she seemed to have a lot of energy for someone who was
injured. I learned that she was
Sabrina’s little sister and if she was going to participate, then I shouldn't
really complain about my burnt fingers.
Back the gymnasium we divided the
people into various groups and I had 6 boys and 2 girls in my team. I started with introductions and for an
icebreaker, used my go-to question, “What’s
your favorite thing of Fall?” All
the boys immediately said that they disliked Fall. I could tell that there was an Alpha-male who
seemed to be the leader of the pack and the rest of the boys were taking their
lead from him. I knew that he would be
trouble and I had to keep my eye on him.
I said that since all the boys disliked Fall today’s project would
be to their liking, since we were making ‘Planter
Pots’ and gardening is usually a summer activity. I told everyone that I wanted to see
them with safety gloves on their hands all the time, since safety was the Number 1 priority
and that I would be reminding them over and over again. Well, I should know with my mishap!
.JPG) |
| The 'Planter's Boxes' |
I started by showing them how to
put two pieces of the bigger rectangular blocks together by bolting longer
strips on top and bottom. As soon as the
guys learned that they would get to use hammer and nails, their enthusiasm went
up. Many boys started hammering from
high up, so as to make maximum noise. It
was clear that they weren’t really serious and were not paying attention to detail. I appointed one of the girls to monitor the
group and she yelled at the boys. They
actually seemed to listen to her and I knew that I could rely on her to ensure
that the group worked well. The second girl
had paired with a boy and they were actually doing a terrific job. While the others were here to have fun, these
two were doing the task meticulously. I
joined them to start putting a box together and realized that they did
not need any supervision or help. The
girl was very wise for her age and was thinking about the task at hand, as
opposed to some of the other kids. I
chatted with her and learned that she was Sabrina’s older sister, and the boy
was Sabrina’s friend. I congratulated
her on her sister’s ‘Bat Mitzvah’ and
asked what she had done for hers. She
said that she had chosen to go to London!
Well, looks like Sabrina was really doing something unique here. We put the box together and everything did
not fit as it should, and that was because the initial building blocks weren’t
made properly. We told the boys that it
was important that they were careful with the prep work; else we would have problems later on.
.JPG) |
| The boxes, painted and potted |
We started work on the 2nd
box and I watched in wonder how the two kids worked well together to make a
perfect box. It was time for the kids to
go for lunch and so Claire helped me put together a 3rd box, with me
trying to clumsily hammer nails with numb fingers. We were supposed to make 4 boxes, but due to
some mistakes, had run out of supplies for the 4th box. I started cleaning the carpentry supplies since the next task was painting. Before
that, plastic bags had to be placed inside and Claire showed me how to cut
trash bags into the right size. The kids
came back and I asked them to wear painting gloves and line up with plastic
cups so that I could pour the paint into them.
Everyone was keen on painting and the Alpha-boy was causing
trouble. I had reached the end of my
patience and told him that if he did not behave, I would send him out. After this he mellowed, perhaps a bit
embarrassed that I had berated him in front of he group; but he did follow
instructions from now on. As the
painting proceeded, Claire asked me to go get lunch while she supervised the
group. I went downstairs where there was
pizza, hot dogs and other things that teenage kids like, including ice cream and
a tower of cupcakes!
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| The other projects - Murals and Mosaic |
I came back to see that the 3
boxes had been painted blue and all the kids except the two girls had
left. I helped get the heavy bags of
soil using a wheelbarrow and then Claire and I put soil in the pots. The two girls’ then planted flowers and we were
done. Next was wrap-up and while our
station was relatively clean, some of the other areas of the gymnasium floor
required attention. Claire and other staff members were literally on their
knees scrubbing the floor, trying to remove minor paint marks. I went down to see the kids off and as a
thank you, Sabrina’s parents had brought pullovers for everyone. Once they left, I went back to help clean the
murals station and then helped carry the supplies to the Chicago Cares
van. I went and checked the beautiful
Mosaic’s and the Plywood Murals in the auditorium and then after taking the
trash out, it was time to leave. I was
tired and dirty, having worked harder than a typical Chicago Cares project. But the staff had worked harder, with Claire
being at the forefront. It was nice to have been a part of Sabrina’s big day. And what
a memorable occasion it was for her. The
best part is that not only will she remember it forever, the kids of the school
we helped would also appreciate the things we had left behind. A win-win-win if there ever was one.
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