Get Crafty!

Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre

Date: Sunday, December 01, 2013; 2:30-4:00 pm

I was going to be attending this project after a hiatus of a few months.  Earlier in the afternoon Alisa called to check if I could help carry a few supplies from the parking lot.  I said sure and so arrived earlier than usual and went in the common room.  I sat down to wait for Alisa and was checking something on my phone when I heard someone crying.  I looked up to see that it was a resident at a nearby table and she kept repeating that she wanted to go home.  She sobbed and said that she did not have any family and with my views on loneliness, it really was a tough thing to watch.  One of the caregivers came and sat next to her and said that she had them as family, though it was proving to be of little comfort.  It was good thing for me that Alisa texted to say that she was here and I went outside to help her.  There were indeed a lot of boxes to carry and Alisa had even recruited her friend to help out.  I asked what it was that was making this so heavy and learned that it was ceramic tiles to make coasters and plenty of glass jars for another project – Hot Chocolate Snowmen.  There was a time when I would have asked many questions on the weird combination of those words, but after having done this for a while, I have learned to just go with the flow.

The residents had started with the coasters last time and today was a continuation for those who wanted to make more.  The idea was to put some glue on the tiles, followed by some designer paper and then more glue on top.  The jars were trickier.  You needed two of them, the bottom filled with hot chocolate powder and the top with marshmallows.  Then using colored felt cloth; we were to make a scarf to go between the two jars and a hat on the top.  Finally, using sticky colors we were to make eyes and nose.  The two jars were to be put together using hot glue.  If done well, it would make for an excellent seasonal present.  Other volunteers arrived soon, including Fran, who is an invaluable resource for this project because of the way she interacts with the residents.

My cutting duties

Speaking of residents, our buddy Elmer was in attendance, though he said that he had to leave soon for physical therapy, but wanted to do sun-catchers today. What?  I had never heard of these, which are basically glass pieces that are colored via paint.  Fran said that she would work on his pieces while he went for his treatment.  I went and sat next to another resident who introduced herself as Molly, and who proved to be quite interesting.  She was with Josie and Mary, all of whom wanted to make the snowman.  I said that I would help with the hats by cutting a circular disc on the felt cloth, followed by a hole in the center.  I used one of the templates that Alisa had made, but my center hole was still coming out as an oval.  While Molly was fine with the oval shape, Mary wanted to see more circular tops.  Wow, talk about a tough crowd!

I chatted with Molly as I used the top of the jar cap to trace and cut the cloth into circles.  She was an enthusiastic talker and I learned that she has 4 kids, 35 year old twins – a man and a woman – and two other younger men in their 20s.  She called her 3^rd oldest son the smartest of the lot since he was married with a good family.  In fact, she said her daughter-in-law was like another daughter for her.  I said if that was the case, then he was certainly a smart one for finding such a woman.  She said that on the contrary, her eldest son was divorced and his ex-wife doesn’t want anything to do with them.  As I chatted with her, I continued cutting and now I was making perfectly circular tops, so much so that Alisa appointed me as the “cutting person”.  Next, I started cutting a lot of the scarves that were going in between the two jars and those were to be red or green squares.  Molly said that she wanted to make 2 snowmen as presents for her daughter and daughter-in-law and 4 coasters for her 3 sons and one son-in-law, since she did not want the boys to get the snowmen.  It certainly seemed like an ambitious plan to get all of this finished, meaning that she was pushing me to get what she wanted – but all in a good way while we chatted. 

Molly's snowmen

As I worked with Molly, I asked Mary about her ‘Puerto Rico’ event from November, since we had discussed it during the ‘What’s The Word’ session.  She said that it had been fantastic and even pulled out some pictures to show me.  In the meanwhile Molly’s two snowmen were looking great and we moved on to making the coasters.  She instructed me to cut the squares precisely and even commented that my straight lines were a bit suspicious.  Oh yeah, tough crowd indeed!  I followed the procedure for the tiles and presented the results to Molly, who rejected one of the coasters. But since we had some time, I was able to make one more.  Elmer was back from his therapy and working with Fran on his sun-catchers, and they looked amazing.  Alisa said that it was time to start cleaning up and as I put things away, I asked her if I could borrow 3 designer scissors for an office project later on in the week.  Mary was in good voice today and policing everyone’s eating and drinking habits.  She scolded one resident from drinking water when they shouldn’t have and even prevented Elmer from eating a marshmallow.  I called her a “food police”, but it was nice to see her caring about fellow residents.

I had enjoyed my time with Molly and she had done extremely well in finishing the presents for her entire family.  As I wished her goodbye, Elmer asked tongue-in-cheek if I had made her work like a “rented mule”, in reference to our running joke.  I said it was more like her doing it to me this time!  He said that he would be moving back to his beloved New York soon and mentioned something about being a ‘Yankees’ fan.  He said that this wasn’t a good year to be a ‘Yankees’ fan, to which I responded that it was never a good year to be a ‘Yankees’ fan.  He laughed and said that it was always a good thing to see me and I said, “Likewise”.  Just as I was about to leave, Jim came in looking dejected since the ‘Bears’ had lost.  We discussed the game for a while and then I left.  My afternoon has started with a woman who had been crying because she said she had no family, and had ended with Mary ensuring that her fellow residents took dietary precautions.  Perhaps the caregiver was right.  This was the only family some of the residents had.  And while it may not be the family that they want, it may just be the family that they need.

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy

McDonald’s 2014 Thanksgiving Day Parade

Location: State Street

Date: Thursday, November 28, 2013; 6:45-10:45 am

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines

Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines

In two straight lines they broke their bread

And brushed their teeth and went to bed.

They left the house at half past nine

In two straight lines in rain or shine-

The smallest one was Madeline.”

- Ludwig Bemelmans

I had no idea what Thanksgiving Day was…not for many years.  Then my first year in graduate school I was invited for a Thanksgiving party.  Many years have passed since that day, but Thanksgiving Day for me has become a special occasion.  I have so many good memories of spending Thanksgiving Day with friends, watching football and that sense of togetherness and family.  I have said before that there are a few days in a year that one should not be alone.  Birthdays are one and Thanksgiving Day is definitely on that list.  For that reason I usually prefer travelling to visit friends on Thanksgiving Day, but today was special.  I had an opportunity to do something that I had never imagined would be possible in my life.  I was going to carry a balloon in the 'McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade'.  I was to be part of an occasion that would be watched by many, either live or on TV.  If I had grandchildren, this is one of the things I would be telling them about with pride.

A few days prior to the parade I was told that I would be carrying ‘Balloon H’, whatever that turned out to be.  Looking at the weather forecast I knew that it was going to be cold and so bundled up with plenty of layers, including double socks and think gloves.  We had been asked to assemble in a place called ‘The Hosteling International Chicago’ at 6:45 am.  I took a cab to the venue and as I entered the building, I saw a huge crowd. There were volunteers everywhere and many were having breakfast before being dispatched for their duties.  I checked-in with a gentleman and he told me to head to a parking lot that was one block south.  I had some coffee and headed there just as we started getting some light outside. 

It was going to take all of that Helium!

I recognized the place owing to a balloon that was already being inflated and it was the only one that was edging it’s way upward.  I was told that I would be on “Madeline’, though I had no clue what that meant.  I picked up my shirt and headband and put it over the other layers that I already had, not that it was much comfort in the cold.  I looked around the parking lot and saw a huge truck carrying multiple long cylinders that contained Helium.  Spread out throughout the lot were several flat balloons and they were enormous, even while deflated.  I could recognize a few such as ‘Garfield’, ‘Curious George’ and even my old friend ‘Tweety’, who had been a handful when we had practiced at the school.  Now, at this stage I must point out that I was clueless when it came to knowing who or what ‘Madeline’ was, having never seen what she looked like, let alone read any books or seen any shows.  I did see a sign saying ‘Balloon H’ and so went there to wait with the group. 

How 'Madeline' looked when I found her

The inflation process was taking a long time and looking at it I just knew that we were in for a long wait in the cold.  And boy was it cold.  As I tried to walk about a bit to maintain some circulation in my limbs, the balloon company guys were hard at work going from one balloon to another to hook it up to the tanks.  They said that if we feeling cold, they had been out here since 3:45 am!  But looking at them you wouldn’t think that they were in any ways uncomfortable, since they were in great spirits and joking with everyone.  They came over to inflate 'Madeline' and I grabbed a cord, as had been instructed during our training.  At first there didn’t seem to be enough cords for everyone, but soon the guys tied some more and our team was now all around her.  My group had a big family with parents, grandparents, kids and even uncles and aunts.  In fact, there were families on many other balloons as well.  It seems to be a Thanksgiving tradition for these folks, to do this and then go for their dinner…and what a lovely tradition it is. 

‘Madeline’ was inflated and now we were waiting for our turn to leave.  The parade had already begun and from my spot I could see the long queue of floats and marching bands going past us down State Street.  It was a slow procession and considering we were the 8^th balloon to depart, it was going to be a long time before we left, especially since they were letting balloons join the parade periodically and were spaced out.  By this time my hands and feet were numb and I wasn’t the only one who was suffering.  People were trying to find various ways to distract themselves and since I was holding ‘Madeline’s’ hand, one gentleman came and asked if he could give her a high-5.  I pulled on the string and lowered her hand so that he could do it and then it was back to waiting.

In the parade

Finally, at 9:40 am we were asked to proceed to the entrance of the lot since our turn was coming up soon.  As we walked towards the gate, it was evident that ‘Madeline’ needed more air.  The guys came and filled some more, but she still wasn’t flying.  We were supposed to join the parade after ‘Miss Chicago’ and I could see her pass by, meaning fly or not, ‘Madeline’ was joining the procession.  Our instructor was leading us but with he lack of air, it seemed more like we were carrying ‘Madeline’ on her back, though we were making all efforts to prop her up.  We walked down State Street dragging her in front of the spectators though unlike me, the thousands who had gathered actually knew of ‘Madeline’ and so were cheering us.  We were trying hard to get her upright and though she was putting up a fight, just before we got to the TV zone something miraculous happened – ‘Madeline’ flew!

My Thanksgiving Day companion

It was spectacular walking down State Street and we were waving to the cheering crowd, and despite the cold, I was having a tremendous time.  It reminded me why I had enjoyed doing the ‘Pride Parade’ earlier this year and as we walked past the TV cameras, even though I was dressed like the ‘Tick’ and wouldn’t be recognized, I did not care.  We had waited an eternity but the actual walk seemed like it was over in an instant.  We turned on Randolph Street and waited till our instructor deflated ‘Madeline’, which took all of two minutes.  She had been temperamental, but it was wonderful having her as our companion this morning, never mind that I was frozen beyond belief.  The 3-hour wait had been worth the 15-minute walk.  I did not go back to the starting point to collect my goody bag, instead rushing into a coffee shop for some hot chocolate.  No one in my group had complained about the cold, let alone the people who were helping us.  I had never in my life thought that I would be a part of something special like this…never.  And though I had not heard of her before this morning, I knew that I would never forget ‘Madeline’ for the rest of my life.

Epilogue

I told all everyone who would listen that I had carried ‘Madeline’ in the parade.  My friend Christine from Pittsburgh had responded with a few quotes from the book and had claimed it to be an iconic read for girls as they grow up.  A few weeks later I received a Christmas present in the mail and as I opened it, there was the book, ‘Madeline' by Ludwig Bemelmans. Inside it was a note from Christine, her husband Jason and their daughter Meredith,

“Christmas 2013

To our friend Ritesh,

Who always finds the magic and poetry in the simplest of things.

Love,

Christine, Jason & Meredith”

I may have spent this Thanksgiving morning in the company of strangers, away from people who care about me.  But it had given me an opportunity like no other…something that I would cherish forever.  As I read my friend’s note for the umpteenth time, I knew she was right about one thing.  It had been an utterly magical experience.

Job Coaching

Location: Open Door Shelter

Date: Monday, November 25, 2013; 6:45-8:30 pm

Slippery road to ODS

We had our first real snow of the season; meaning winter was on its way.  As I walked to the ODS, the sidewalks were slick and I had to watch my footing.  Despite my slow pace, I arrived before anyone else and was soon joined by Wilson, there because his One Brick project had been cancelled. With him was Mark, a Red Cross volunteer.  It was Mark’s first time here and so I told him about the place and the program.  In the meanwhile Claire arrived, followed by 3 other volunteers.  Since most of the volunteers were new, she told everyone about what we would be doing.  I chipped in by saying that sometimes the youth can be a bit challenging to work with and we should not give up on the session because of that.  I said that most are probably applying for a job in retail or fast-food places and fail to see the value of our coaching, which is designed more for a career oriented role.  I always tell them that what we were doing is helping them with an eye on the future.  As we discussed this, one resident walked in and seeing the group asked if we had missed her.  I countered asking, “If we say yes, would you come for our session?”  She laughed and went upstairs.  Well, if the others had a similar sense of humor, we wouldn’t have many problems this evening, 

We went upstairs and gathered around the table.  It appeared to be a new batch of residents since I did not recognize anyone who was there.  There were a lot of toddlers running about and one of them was excited to see us.  I chatted with him for a bit till Claire started the evening’s proceedings.  We went around the table introducing ourselves and my job as a “Product Manager at an Energy Company” did not sound as exciting as another volunteer who worked for ‘Pandora’.  For an icebreaker Claire wanted to play the “birthday game”, where everyone was to line up in order of his or her birthday from January to December.  This gets everyone talking as they try to find their place in the line.  I said that I would stand in the center and others could line up on either side of me.  There were couple of other folks with June birthdays and we managed to get everyone in order.

For our main activity Claire was going to show us some online video’s on interviewing – the do’s and the don’ts.  She also paired the volunteers and youth so that we could have a focused discussion on what we had seen in the videos.  I was with a girl Roxanne and a boy Danny.   There were some technical challenges in getting the computer connected to the Internet and while Wilson worked on that, I asked the two youth what they did.  Roxanne said that she wants to work in shipping, packaging and logistics at a warehouse.  This was a very specific goal and I told her that it was pleasing to hear that someone had thought about want to do and with such detail.  She said that she had already applied to 4 places and was hoping to hear back soon.  Danny said that he wants to become a chef and had in fact registered to take classes.  I asked what kind of food would he like to work with and he said at present it would be flipping burgers.  I said that one has to start somewhere and it may as well be this.  I asked if he liked Italian cuisine and he said that he did.  I asked about his knife skills and he said that he was working on it. 

Perhaps not!

We had finally got the computer set up and started to watch the first video.  It was an example of a bad interview, with one girl coming in for her interview and then mailing it in.  It was obviously a bit extreme, but drove home the point of what not to do.  Next, another guy came in and did a very good job.  Claire had provided us handouts to discuss these scenarios and asked us to confer with our group.  I told both; Roxanne and Danny to write down their thoughts and Roxanne did a good job of capturing some of the key takeaways.  She said that the girl in the film had bad posture, was nervous, took a personal phone call in the middle of the interview, made no eye contact, was laid back, and in general was unprofessional and disrespectful towards the interviewer.  The guy on the other hand looked professional, had nice body language, good manners, confident and was an ideal candidate.  I asked Roxanne a couple of questions that the interviewer had asked the candidates such as, “Tell me about a time when you had to work as a team” and “Tell me about a project that you did from start to finish”.  She gave an example from her pet logistics field, where everyone had to organize shipment in a timely manner.  Danny gave a novel answer to this question on the time his family had decided to paint their house and how he was responsible for his room.  I asked if there was any common area where they had to work together and he said that they did so on the hallway.  I said that it was a good example of teamwork; since every member had to be consistent in the way they applied the paint.  He also talked about playing basketball on a team. 

Claire took Roxanne to another group and while she had looked disinterested, I sense a lot of potential in her.  Danny on the other hand admitted to me that 5 minutes after we left, all the material that we had distributed would be in the garbage and he failed to see a point to anything that we were doing.  I told him that what we were trying to accomplish here was not to prepare him for a job tomorrow or even next year, but a career 5 years from now.  So while he may not see the value of this immediately, he would do so sometime in the future.  Another girl had joined us and she appeared to be his friend.  She said that she wanted to be a criminal justice lawyer and was already in year 2 of her studies.  I told Danny that I didn’t want for him to have a lowly job while she became a successful lawyer.  The skills he would learn with us would take time to payoff, but payoff they most definitely would. 

It was time for another video and this was of a guy who goes in for an interview and then tells his friend how he blew it.  The video was of him giving a bad interview, and then a scenario of how he should have done it.  Claire paused after each interview question to make a point and asked us to discuss.  Danny was not interested and so we just talked about his family.  I learned that he is the youngest amongst 6 siblings and his mom ran a day care in Calumet City.  Danny used to work in the daycare when he was younger and they are a very close family.  He was going home for Thanksgiving, where the entire family would be together.  He said that whenever that happens, they all play some card game for hours.  His face lit up as he talked about his family and he really is a nice kid.  We just need to win his trust and that was the point of this conversation…building rapport.

The video was at an end and Claire gathered us for some final thoughts.  One girl said that she felt as if the interviewer was treating the interviewee with disrespect and what were we to do if we went into someone’s office for an interview and they were on the phone.  Many said that we should wait while some said that we should interrupt.  I said that this was perhaps a part of the interview and the interviewer was evaluating our response to this situation.  I said that we should always be on our guard and after the interview, it was totally up to us if we wanted to work for this person or not.  This led to a brief discussion on “bad managers” and I told everyone about the lesson my dad had told me on the first day of my previous job – “You cannot change your boss.  You can only change your job”.  It was time for us to leave and it had been a novel session with the videos.  I had some trouble with Danny but as with other things, it is about being patient, for it will take some time for him to get comfortable with us.  Hopefully we had done enough for him to not throw away all of our material in  the garbage as he had originally intended.  That would be a great shame and a disservice to himself. 

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy

Make-A-Wish Children’s Hospital Festival Of Thanksgiving

Location: UIC Student Center

Date: Saturday, November 23, 2013; 10:30 am-2:15 pm

This project had been the highlight of my previous year and I had been checking the MAW website since…well since summer for this one.  As soon as it showed up on the calendar, I signed up faster than one can say “turkey”.  The week of the party we got an email, which said that for our project this year we would be making a ‘Thanksgiving Turkey’ and a ‘Thanksgiving Wreath’.  Having done a couple of Arts & Crafts projects through MAW, I knew that kids enjoy it a lot and I had no doubt this occasion would be the same.  MAW asked if anyone had a car that could be used to transfer the supplies and fortunately someone else volunteered to do so.  I do not own a car, meaning that I took the Pink Line train to Polk station and just like last year, got lost in the maze that is the UIC campus.  After roaming about for a bit I found someone who pointed me in the right direction.  Some things never change.

Our table

I went upstairs and into the grand hall, which was busy with various groups setting up their stations.  This year our table was in a different location and right next to the table having all of the presents, which was perfect in terms of attracting traffic.  I was the first of the MAW team to arrive and so was looking at a bare table with two boxes on it.  I looked inside and found a MAW tablecloth that I put on the table.  Next were some MAW banners, which I wanted to put on the wall behind us.  However I required some tape to do so and after asking each of the other organizations, finally located it with the photographer.  After the banner went up, our area was looking presentable, though it was nowhere as cool as our neighbors – ‘The Starlight Foundation’, who had a purple tablecloth with stars on it.  “Not fair”, I joked with their people. 

'Thankful Turkey'

Soon another volunteer arrived and introduced herself as Valerie.  She was new with MAW and had the enthusiasm that new volunteers usually have. I had laid out the supplies and instructions for our two projects and Valerie said that we should make some samples to display.  I agreed and while she cut “turkey feathers” from the craft paper, I started making the “turkey” using a toilet paper roll.  Who knew that we could use it for this purpose!  On the “feathers” we wrote some of the things that we were thankful for, such as MAW, UIC Hospital, family, friends, toys etc. and soon we had a working model of our ‘Thankful Turkey’.  Our 3rd colleague – Fred, now joined us and this was it as far as MAW volunteers were concerned.  The kids had started arriving and besides us there were 5 or 6 other tables with arts & crafts and so they were spoilt for choice.  Starlight was making headbands, which was popular with the kids and so had big gathering.  However some of the kids came to us and almost everyone wanted to make the ‘Thankful Turkey’.  While Valerie – who was great with children – and I helped them, Fred was out on the floor playing with kids.  He has a talent for that and was tossing a ball with a little girl.  I was helping with a task that most kids were having trouble with, peeling off the ‘googly eyes’ from their sticker backing so that they could be put on the roll. It was then that I saw her.

'Thanksgiving Wreath'

Last year had been special for sure, but one of the reasons was a little girl, Olivia, who had stolen my heart.  She had played with colors and had smudged her way to two “portraits”, one of which hangs on my wall to this day.  I spotted someone who looked like her and to my immense joy, it did turn out to be Olivia, now a full year older.  She had grown so much and I chatted with her mom and grandma, showing them the picture of her painting from last year.  Her little brother Jerry, who had been an infant, was now a little toddler.  Olivia was playing with a ball and I excused myself for a couple of minutes to go play with her.  Whatever else I was to achieve today…this year, seeing Olivia had made everything worthwhile.  Olivia was not the only person that I recognized; there was Steven, whom I had called “the most well dressed man in the room” last year because he had been wearing a stylish vest.  Well, he was back and wearing another vest.  Now here’s a fashion model in the making.  One girl came with a younger sibling who had been a ‘Wish Child’.  I asked what her wish had been and she said that they had visited ‘Disney World’.  She went on to say that the whole experience had been fantastic, especially staying at ‘Give Kids The World’ village. 

Donut Decorations!

Lunch was being served and so we had a lull in proceedings and I took the opportunity to walk about and visit the other tables such as ‘Bear Necessities’.  Like the previous year, they were once again making colored bulbs.  They always ask the children to make two, one to keep, while the other is auctioned off to raise funds.  Like us, there was other organization that was making Turkey related props and they did not have extensive supplies like we did.  They had white eyes that they were putting on the turkey and so I donated a bag of our colored eyes to them.  Another organization was getting the kids to decorate donuts.  How can one beat that! 

I came back to our table and we had a new onset of visitors.  One lady came over and thanked us for the ‘Bat Kid’ wish that had made headlines recently for MAW.  She told us about a ‘Wish Kid’ that she knew who had gone to Hawaii.  She said that he really wanted to go to ‘Disney World’, but had changed the wish for family’s sake.  Now, wait a minute.  That’s exactly the kind of situation that we as ‘Wish Granters’ are supposed to not let happen.  Well, for his sake I hope they all had a good time.  One overactive kid came over, looking extremely confident and knew exactly what he wanted to make.  He was Olivia’s elder brother Brodie, and proceeded to make a ‘Alien Turkey’, complete with 4 eyes!  In fact all of Olivia’s siblings were in attendance, including her elder sister Kennedy.  Seems like this event has become an annual tradition for the family.  A sweet girl came over and introduced herself as Emelcee, and she was Steven’s sister.  I enjoyed making the turkey with her and every time I asked her a question on what she wanted to do next with her design, she would purse her lips, squint, and strike a thoughtful pose.  I asked her what she was thankful for and after doing her routine; she said that she was thankful for her “fishies”.  She already had 20 of them and wanted more!  I asked if she had named all of the ones that she had and she said no.  I said that perhaps that would be a good start before getting more of them.  Almost all of the kids were making the turkey and finally we had one child request the wreath.   Even then she got bored and ended up just coloring.  The turkey was by far the most popular. 

Everyone was dancing

The party was well and truly on and all the kids were having a good time.  I chatted with a Dr, Schmidt and it seemed like she was in charge.  She thanked us for coming and I said that on the contrary it was us who were grateful for this opportunity. She talked about how with the treatments and kids in the hospitals, this was the only Thanksgiving that these families would have.  Looking around us we would not have known, but it is very easy to forget that most of the people here were going through some tough times.  She said that she has been doing this for a long time and many of the kids under her care had their wishes granted.  She said that now she wanted to nominate a kid who was 17 and undergoing treatment for leukemia.  I said that she should do it before she turned 18 since that was the cut-off for MAW.  I told her how much I admired the doctors who dedicate their lives to this, telling her about some of things I had witnessed at ‘Comer Hospital Summer Picnic’. Before she went over to receive a donation check, I asked how it was possible for her to be surrounded by such precious kids and yet maintain professionalism and not get too emotionally involved.  She said that it is difficult, but now she’s used to it and that being a professional is one of the most critical things that these doctors learn to follow. 

The DJ was out and there was dancing going on with the kids, who were being led by Dr. Schmidt.  Despite these activities, many were still visiting us to make turkeys and we were kept busy.  When I say we, I mean Valerie and myself.  Fred had spent the entire time playing with kids, and at one stage I had gone to request him to come help out since we were short-staffed.  Now, while he is a genuine person who is fantastic with children, he is a lousy team player and I told him that.  I wanted to play with the kids as well and Valerie could have used a break.  But we couldn’t, because no one was present to relive us.  So while he was a great ambassador for MAW, I found Fred to be a difficult person to work with and he was annoyed when I told him in a stern manner that I wanted him back at the table.  Not once had he asked us if we wanted anything or required any help, and being a team player is all about ensuring everyone gets what they want.  I was disappointed that such a great occasion had turned a bit sour for me because of our argument. 

However, for me it was a minor glitch in what had been another unforgettable day.  I had met some amazing kids, including precious Olivia.  The party was coming to an end and we started packing up and cleaning.  Some of the kids had left their turkeys and wreaths and I took some as souvenirs.  So ended one more year at UIC and I had started my countdown to next years event even before I had reached the train station. 

It had been another fantastic day

Celebrate Thanksgiving With Seniors!

Location: Harry J. Schneider Apartments

Date: Friday, November 22, 2013; 5:30-8:00 pm

Wilson and I had teamed up to lead this event with him as the EM and me functioning as the EC.  However with the hurricane damage in interior Illinois, Wilson was required in Peoria and would not be able to make it in time.  So he asked if I would be willing to lead and I readily agreed.  This did not go well with the One Brick leadership who freaked out saying that they needed a “trained manager” and asked Wilson to find a replacement.  Wilson argued that with my experience as a Chicago Cares leader, including projects like ‘Serve-a-thon’, I was more than capable.  It was perhaps the mention of Chicago Cares that put them off, but eventually they agreed and I was ready to commence my career as a One Brick Event Manager…kind of since this was all unofficial!

It did not begin well since I was one of the last to arrive, totally unbecoming of a One Brick EM.  There were 13 volunteers present, including some familiar faces like Rich and Irina.  I checked-in with the Site rep Starr, who had met Wilson while she was volunteering at a One Brick event and had mentioned about this property that she manages.  This is how he got the project listed on the One Brick calendar.  I think this is an excellent way for One Brick to learn about potential project opportunities, through the people who volunteer with us.  This evening’s program was to benefit the senior apartments of the ‘Habitat Company’ and we would be helping out at their annual Thanksgiving party.  According to the description on One Brick website, “Every year the Chicago Housing Authority donates funds to provide free holiday events to senior citizen residents, some of whom have little or no family contact.  One Brick volunteers will assist with decorating, serving meals to seniors, and cleaning up.”

The lovely table setting

We would be serving approximately 65-70 seniors and while the food was being catered, we were required to do the rest.  There were 10 big tables in the room and the first task was to lay down the table setting and I assigned some volunteers to that task.  The food arrived and on the menu we had ‘Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy’ and side of vegetables and bread.  For dessert there were ‘Red Velvet Cookies’.  Starr gave us all disposable aprons and gloves and while 4 people would be serving, the rest were going to be the runners.  One person was required to sit up front and sign-in the guests while giving them a red raffle ticket and a white meal ticket.  Once we had served them, we were to request that they hand us the white ticket.  This seemed like overkill to me but Starr mentioned that seeing new faces, some of the guests may take advantage to get more food, especially since we did not have a lot to spare for seconds.  Well, she would know best. 

Rich is our resident “crowd control expert” and so he took over the ticketing duties and sat by the door.  A big line had already formed outside and we started letting people in.  Some of our volunteers started serving soda while the rest lined up with trays and went down the assembly line of servers as they put food on the plates.  Then the runners went about serving, while politely requesting the tickets rather than demanding them.  That was the least we could do and I had instructed the crew accordingly.  We had a diverse group of residents and some of them were Korean. They did not speak much English and thus ignored our requests for tickets.  Some others were a bit demanding and were getting irritated that they were not being served faster.  But many of them were genuinely happy to see us and thanked us for serving them.  After all the residents had been served, I asked the volunteers to grab a plate and most sat with the guests and conversed.  While this was going on, a gentleman was entertaining everyone by singing; a one-man band for the evening.  After dinner we served cookies and people definitely enjoyed those.  I’m not sure what their health care provider would have to say about that, but after all it was a Thanksgiving party and a cookie wouldn’t hurt for one evening. 

Before the guests left, Starr asked all of us to come up to the microphone and introduce ourselves.  The guests had appreciated our company and once again thanked us for coming.  We cleaned up and then it was time to leave.  I managed to convince 11 out of the 13 volunteers to come out for a drink, showing that they had certainly enjoyed themselves.  We went to a place called ‘Fireside’ and one of the volunteers said that a resident had “hit on her”.  She went on to say that she was probably the most “age appropriate” person for the residents and so this gentleman had taken his chances.  I said that she should perhaps consider herself to be the luckiest amongst all of us and be flattered.  It was a fun evening and we laughed a lot.

My first foray into managing had gone smoothly though Wilson had sent me text messages constantly, checking on each aspect of the evening.  That notwithstanding, I thought that I had done a good job and look forward to more opportunities as an EM.  But this evening had been about more than that.  The description has said that some of these seniors are isolated and have no family contact.  Every living creature needs social interaction and nobody - absolutely no one - should experience loneliness.  Yeah it really wasn’t Thanksgiving, but calling this evening's party that had perhaps made the seniors feel as if they were a part of a family.  And our volunteers had made them feel at home.  I couldn’t have been more proud of my team. 

Senior Diners Club

Location: Lidia Pucinska Apartments

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2013; 6:00-8:00 pm

I arrived at the location to see that while the room was full with residents, I was the only volunteer there.  Soon another arrived with a bag full of groceries and said that our Volunteer Leader Erica required some help in carrying some other bags.  So I went back outside and between the three of us we carried back a lot of things, making me think that it was going to be a grand meal.  The reason she had so much stuff is because Erica usually comes prepared with all the ingredients chopped and prepped in their individual containers, and so most of the dishes just need to be cooked at the site.  The menu for this evening was ‘Beef Stroganoff’, ‘Coleslaw Salad’, ‘Corn Bread’ and ‘Baklava’.

Say what!

Erica wanted to use white wine in the stroganoff, and had brought a bottle with her.  What she did not have is an opener.  I had seen a wine shop on my way to this place and offered to go get one.  Reluctantly she agreed and so I set off, stopping at the security guard’s desk to ask if he happened to have one on him.  He was a friendly guy and said that he may have it in his truck, though I said that it would be faster for me to just go to the store.  The said store around the corner was called, ‘The Noble Grape’, though the way they had the sign written, the “G” wasn’t really apparent, making it an interesting read.  I went inside, and as I purchased the opener, I mention as much to the girl at the register and she agreed with me.  I came back to see that Wilson was in attendance, meaning that he probably had an opener on him and could have saved me a trip. He started with the Bingo while the rest of us got down to cooking.

The beef for the stroganoff had already been precooked, though we still had to make the sauce.  Erica got it started and another volunteer put the pasta inside boiling water in another pot.  Over on another table the cabbage for the coleslaw was being chopped, while Erica was making the filling for the baklava.  She asked if I could help cut the mushrooms and I started by washing them and then slicing.  The pasta was done while the sauce was not even close to being ready.  As the volunteer in charge of pasta drained the water, I told him to add some oil to it so as to prevent sticking, as we waited for the sauce.  Finally, something that I had seen on the ‘Food Network’ was paying off. 

My mushrooms in the sauce

I had finished chopping the mushrooms and added them to the sauce, following which Erica added the all important wine and sour cream.  It was looking really good, though we could do with some salt.  The only problem was that there was no salt.  As usual, Wilson improvised by added some ‘Worcestershire Sauce’, which worked surprisingly well.  The baklava was in the oven, the stroganoff was cooking and the coleslaw was done.  In the meanwhile, all the Bingo prizes had been distributed and I worked with a volunteer in setting up the tables by distributing napkins and forks.  Many of the residents who had been waiting for dinner seemed delighted and thanked us as we did this.  I then went about pouring the drinks and one of the issues was the size of the glasses – they were too big.  To ensure that we had enough drinks for everyone, I was pouring half, meaning that people were asking for more.  I made a mental note to tell Erica that we should have smaller glasses from now on, as I tried to explain to people that we wanted to serve everyone before doing refills. 

The popular baklava pie

By now people were hungry and we started plating – Coleslaw, one muffin, some pasta and a ladle of the stroganoff.  As I stared serving the plates, some of the people started demanding that I go to them first.  I told them that I would get there, at which they grimaced.  Wow, it surely was a tough crowd tonight.  There were a lot of people and I asked one of the volunteers to point at the tables which hadn’t received plates, so that we could go to them directly and speed up the process - a trick I had learned at the ‘Wells Street Café’.  Soon everyone had been served and it was time for seconds.  The problem was that while we still had some pasta left, we were out of the stroganoff sauce.  Erica is a quick thinker and quickly whipped up a butter sauce, which smelled really good and am sure tasted great with the pasta.  In fact, seeing the bigger crowd she decided to make one more baklava pie, rather than just the two in the oven.  While that was baking we cut the other two into wedges and I asked one of the volunteers to stand guard, else people would start taking the dessert and it would throw off our numbers.  And that’s exactly what happened a little later as one lady asked for a piece for a little girl and after I had given it to her, I learned that the girl had already received one earlier. Since the amount of wedges were exact as the number of residents, this meant that one gentleman did not get a piece and we all felt bad.

As we wrapped up after a busy evening I asked Erica how much her budget was and she said it was $150, though she always exceeds it and sometimes has to pay out of pocket.  We were tired yes, but it had been a satisfying evening. Every chef gauges his or her success by the amount of food remaining and on that account, we had been outstanding since every single bit of food that had been cooked had been served.  Now, I had been the one to hand the extra pie to the girl meaning not everyone got dessert.  However, I was never going to disappoint a child if she asked for one more.  The point is that next time we should plan for contingencies and make more than just exact, so as to avoid situations such as these.  But despite this minor hiccup, it was a nice evening. 

What's The Word

Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2013; 6:30-8:00 pm

I always enjoy my visits to Lakeview Nursing and this evening I arrived to find that our Volunteer Leader Gwyn was already there, along with another volunteer Greg.  From the looks of things, this was it for the evening.  Well, there were 3 of us, which was 2 more than the number of residents who had shown up for the project.  Jim was sick, Mary had just been through surgery and Larry has not been well for 3 months.  This left just Jack from the usual team and he was in attendance.  It was a shame that Larry was absent since it was his birthday and as is her custom, Gwyn had made cookies from him.  I remember attending a year ago when it was Larry’s birthday and just like this evening, Gwyn had bought cookies.  Wow, a year.  Has time really gone by that fast?

"Please Mr. President"

Gwyn said that it would be great to have some more people and asked if I could go look for my buddy Elmer, who always adds color to any occasion.  I found him in bed and asked if he wanted to join us.  He said that he had lost track of time and asked me to convey his apologies to everyone.  I mentioned that there was a cookie in it for him should he come, but he looked tired and said that he would have to miss all the fun.  There really wasn’t anyone else who attends this program and so I returned back to the community room.  Gwyn said that there was still work to be done and we should get to it.  This was the first session for the January-February issue of ‘As We See It’, meaning we were starting with a blank piece of paper.  As she set up the laptop computer, I took a look at the November-December issue, and there were several interesting tidbits.  One of them was that the President of the U.S. can actually “pardon” a turkey or two for Thanksgiving, following which they can live free.  I did not know this fact and while I do not know if turkeys have lawyers filing petition on their behalf, it does seem like an unenviable task for the President to choose his favorite ones! 

We were ready to commence and the four of us started by discussing some of the more special days and occasions that occur during the first two months of the year. There are popular ones like ‘New Years Day’, ‘MLK Day’, ‘Presidents Day’, ‘Valentines Day’, ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ etc, but Gwyn wanted something less famous than that.  Greg and Jack would be combing through the ‘Chase’ trivia book, while Gwyn and I would be searching on the computer.  I asked Gwyn if it was her laptop and she said that it belonged to Chicago Cares.  What was interesting was a big Justin Timberlake sticker on the front of the computer.  Looks like someone over there is a huge fan!  I opened Google and put in search words, “Things to do in Chicago in January” and voila, there was a link to a website which gave a calendar view of everything that was happening in and around the city.  This was a goldmine of information for me personally, let alone for the newsletter.  There were a lot of things to do in January such as ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Lincoln Park Zoo Lights’, ‘Flower & Train Show’, ‘Live Storytelling’ etc.  While I was interested in attending quite a few, there was also an event called ‘Polar Bear Plunge’, where people wearing swimsuits jumped into the lake!  This was something I had no interest in watching, let alone dream of doing.  Gwyn said that she has seen it and had no words to comment on the utter stupidity on display.  February had things such as ‘Chicago Auto Show’, ‘Youth Poetry Festival’ and a ‘Dog Show’ where you can actually pet the dogs.  This was all good enough for me, especially a ‘Mardi Gras Pub Crawl’.  Suddenly Chicago wasn’t looking too bad a place for winter.

Surely this was more dangerous

In the meanwhile Greg and Jack had found something called ‘Silent Music Week’, which celebrated silence.  Eh, what?  I mean, really, what?  How was that even supposed to work?  I looked online and found a news article from the 50s that said that a 65-piece orchestra assembled and did nothing.  It sounded like the “Emperor’s new clothes” to me and I hope that people paid for this silent recital with invisible money!  This prompted Jack to tell us his music stories from childhood.  It seems that his mom was an accomplished piano player and dad was a barber.  However his mother remarried and his stepfather was an opera singer, meaning Jack was always around shows and musicians.  He said that he had met almost all of the famous musicians passing through Chicago.  He had started playing an organ at a young age and gave his first performance at 10 years old.  He told us how some of the organs have 5 levels of keys and are huge.  He talked about travelling with his parents for shows in the 50s at the height of racial segregation and prejudice, meaning there were places where he wasn’t allowed to enter.  Well, it was their loss I say.  Seeing his captive audience, Jack was on a roll and told us a scary winter story where he was hit on the eye by a snowball having a rock in it.  He said that the kid throwing it was not aware and though his eye was shut for 2 weeks, he had been lucky not to lose it.  He told us about his visit to ‘Mount Rushmore’ and how it was a scary ride to get there.  Well, considering Cary Grant was hanging off the President’s nose while rescuing Eva Marie Saint, a car ride is nothing! 

Gwyn asked me to find some restaurant to review and l looked on Google Maps and found some bars, pubs, ice cream shops and juice centers.  The restaurants were either pizza or noodles places and Gwyn said that we would probably go with one of those since she likes to bring food in for a session.  It was almost time to go and Gwyn gave Jack the cookies to drop off with Larry.  She also told him to ask Larry to find someone to interview for the newsletter. It was great that she was trying to get Larry involved despite his ailment and it's really things like these that sometimes help more than medicine.  She announced that December 18^th would be their holiday party and Gwyn was going to bring small presents for the residents.  In my opinion there are never any small presents... there are just gifts, especially when they mean so much to the residents in a nursing home.  I left after the most intimate session of ‘What’s The Word’, but it had been perfect.  It had allowed me to learn more about Jack.  Really, who knew that this quiet man sitting in the corner of the room during Bingo was so interesting and talented?  Just goes to prove how impressions can be, and usually are, wrong. 

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy