Young Scientists At McCormick

Location: McCormick Elementary School

Date: Saturday, January 25, 2014; 10:00 am-12:30 pm

It was only a few short hours from when he had dropped me home that Wilson picked me up for this project.  After picking up another volunteer we arrived at McCormick to find several volunteers waiting outside in the cold and snow.  They always open the doors exactly at 10 am, even though there are people already in the school.  When the doors finally opened, we went inside and assembled in the activity room.  As usual, people had gathered for all sorts of projects, including ‘Read With Me’, ‘Chicago History’ and Wilson’s ‘Adventures In Math’.  Soon every other group left and the only ones remaining were those attending the ‘Young Scientists’ project.  Maureen said that today we would be helping the kids prepare for ‘ISAT’ examination and then reviewing last times ‘Acid/Base’ experiment.  Following this, we would be performing the ‘Birdseed Mining’ experiment and ‘Can you lift it?’  I had done the mining experiment at Henderson 'Mad Scientists' project and it had been a lot of fun.  Looks like Chicago Cares was distributing the same ideas to all schools, and why not.

'Birdseed Mining'

I helped get the supplies out from the closet and then prepare the 5 pans for the mining activity.  This included putting random numbers of silver, gold, blue and white beads in the pans, and then filling up with different types of birdseeds.  Soon the kids arrived and I recognized Sandra from last time and so did she.  Once again, her nametag was missing and while some other kids would have been upset at this, Sandra is a very calm person who didn’t seem to get bothered by this.  I sat down with her and at our table were 3 other boys, and a volunteer named Tegan.  We started with ‘ISAT’ questions and Maureen told us to only go till Question 20.  All of these were multiple choices with 4 possible answers.  The idea was for us to drive the kids towards the right answer through a process of elimination. Tegan was helping Sandra, so I turned my attention to the boy next to me.  He seemed receptive to coaching and we had fun solving the questions, some of which had graphs for data interpretation, some were picture-based questions and others just required careful reading.  We managed to do 13 till the time expired, and then Maureen went over the first 10 answers with us – all of which we had answered correctly. 

The dreaded "reclamation" beads

Next, we reviewed last weeks ‘Acid/Base’ experiment by identifying if the items on Maureen’s chart were Acid, Base or Neutral.  There were choices like vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda, laundry detergent, water etc.  We did this together as a group and it helped reinforce with the kids what they had learned the previous week.  Then it was time for the ‘Birdseed Mining’ experiment and Maureen started by asking everyone what one can find inside a mine.  The answers ranged from things such as “Gold”, “Copper”, “Diamonds”, “Minerals” and someone even said, “Money”!  In this game, each colored bead was worth some dollar amount, for example gold was $5, blue and silver were $3 each; and pumpkin seeds were $2.  The rest of the seeds were worthless, while a white bead carried a “reclamation penalty” of negative $50.  This meant that we were hoping to avoid getting white!  We dug in and started mining.  I told everyone in our group to not neglect pumpkin seeds since they add up.  Unfortunately, we had received a pan with many white beads and our penalties were adding up.  Around us there was complete chaos and madness and the kids really got in to this activity.  We started counting our “profits” and in the end our total count was $741, which included 314 pumpkin seeds.  However, we had to pay a reclamation penalty of $500, meaning we walked home with $241.  I asked everyone how much each of us had made and I said lets give $1 for parking, so that we could easily divide $240 between the 6 of us.  Sandra and boys did the division and came up with the right answer.  We had finished last due to our reclamation costs and I said to the group not to worry since we were the “Clean-up crew” and doing a job that nobody wants!

Can you lift it?

Next we had a short break and I asked everyone about their favorite subjects and almost everyone said Science or Math.  The boy next to me said that he also liked Social Studies and I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He said he wanted to be a Soccer player.  I said that he would certainly make more money that way rather than as a scientist or a politician!  But once he retires, he could use one of those skills for a second career.  Our next experiment was to see if we could lift ice cubes using a string.  The idea was to place the string on the cubes and then adding salt to lower the freezing temperature. The string would then freeze and we could lift the ice cube with the two ends.  All the kids loved it and everyone managed to lift up their ice cube.  Maureen told the kids to amaze their friends and family with this trick and not tell anyone about the salt.  I could see this becoming a neat trick during parties.

During the clean up I tied the strings together and played the string twist game where you put your hand through it, get tied and then after passing your hand through the other loop, you get un-entangled.  The kids liked this one and Tegan took it to another level with creative designs.  We still had 15 minutes to go and so Maureen decided to do a ‘Science Bingo’ game.  She gave out Bingo sheets with 25 squares and a list with 41 science words.  The kids could put any 24 words on their sheet in any order – 1 was free space – and then Maureen would read out the definitions of the words and if you had it on a square, you could mark it. I worked with Sandra in selecting the words and she was choosing the ones she wanted.  She was also careful in ensuring that all the words were spelled correctly, taking her time to be perfect.  We then played for one round after which we had one winner.  The time was up and the kids formed a line, thanked us and left. The volunteers cleaned up, storing the tables, and then Maureen did a reflection where everyone had something positive to say.  She announced a field trip to 'Adler Planetarium' in February and I said that I would try to attend that one.  Tegan had been fantastic to work with, and Sandra had been as sweet as before.  I wished everyone and then left with Wilson for our next project.  No rest for the weary I guess, but who's complaining.

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

Help At Wonderivia - The TRIVIA Gala!

Location: Nineteenth Century Club

Date: Friday, January 24, 2014; 6:00-10:00 pm

The rooms were lovely

The only time I had volunteered in the suburbs had been the Donut project to support ‘Wonder Works’ children’s museum in Oak Park.  This was another chance to go out there…though not for the Donuts.  According to the description on One Brick website, “Wonder Works is 6,400 square feet of fun, a place of creative play for kids birth to age eight. Located in Oak Park, the children's museum helps kids, their parents and caregivers unleash their imaginations through art, performance, design, building and more.”  We were going to volunteer for the Trivia night, held to raise money for the museum.  Wilson picked me up in the evening and we battled through snow and traffic to arrive there just on time.  It was a very cold night and we rushed inside the exquisite looking building.  Plus it was beautiful on the inside, old fashioned, with some nice antique styled furniture. 

My lasagna rolls

I spotted my old buddy Charles Paul in one of the rooms, as well as our EM Kinga and other regulars like Dave and Rich.  Our first task was to get the food from the van outside, in to the kitchen.  It was going to be all finger food today, with mini-burgers, Phyllo-dough filled spinach etc. Our site representative was Jessica, and she was directing the traffic in the kitchen. She asked if I could help make Lasagna rolls.  So I would be responsible for some exotic sounding hors d’oeuvres.  Ok then.   I mixed cream cheese with two eggs and then Jessica added salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and Parmesan.  I mixed it all together and then took some lasagna sheets and put the mixture on top of them, before rolling them to form a…well lasagna roll.  The next step was to put a bit of marinara sauce on top of the rolls, followed by a bit of shredded mozzarella.  I got down to it and since I was being a bit generous with the fillings, ran out of the mixture.  I had seen what Jessica had done and so was able to replicate her “magic powder mix”.  The ovens were hot and ready to go and before putting the pans inside, I suggested that we put some oil under the rolls, so as to prevent sticking.  Wow, all those hours of watching ‘Food Network’ was paying off!

One of the volunteers working with us said that she was scared of using a knife and did not want to handle them.  I could sympathize with her, since I am convinced that I may someday do some damage to my fingers while chopping.  Fortunately, we also had another volunteer Amy, who had taken knife skill classes and was able to help out.  The food was coming out and going upstairs where the actual event was being conducted in an auditorium.  Beside our station, Rich and Dave were making cheese stuffed dates as well as bacon wrapped dates and doing a good job of it as well.  Jessica came and told us that the food was being consumed fast, meaning that we needed to improvise and make something else that we had not planned for.  She asked me to make a pizza from pizza dough.  Let me repeat so that I believe what I just wrote.  Jessica asked me – not to order pizza – but make it from the scratch using pizza dough.  Seriously, ok then.

Making pizza

Amy asked me if I “Cook very much”.  I said that “very” is a strong word, “much” is stronger and “cook” is a stretch.  Its not that I am a bad cook or that I dislike cooking.  On the contrary, I am halfway decent and love cooking for others.  I just don’t like cooking for myself, which is most often the case.  I took the pizza dough and first thing was to roll it out, so as to get an even thin crust.  One thing was certain though, I would not be tossing it up like one sees in the videos.  The problem was the lack of a roller and I ended up using a glass vase to get the job done the best that I could.  I then had to make mini pizzas and used a plastic cup to cut through the dough and make individual sized pizzas; in fact breaking one cup in the process.  I had forgotten to put flour on the cutting board and so the pizza circles were sticking.  Some suggested that I give up and roll again, but with some patience I managed to remove them from the board.  Charles Paul was adding his own encouragement by saying, “Never give up, never surrender”.  Damn right!  After putting those circles in the pan, I added flour and re-rolled and re-cut the remaining dough.  I repeated this process 4 times, but the dough didn’t appear to be shrinking.  As much as it felt like a never-ending hole, I was finally done with the dough and now it was time for the toppings.  I added cream cheese on it and Jessica came and added zucchini and garlic before popping it in the oven.  Rich had started washing the dishes even though there was a functional dishwasher.  When I pointed it out, he said that he was seeking perfection.  In the meanwhile, real pizza had been ordered and now I was certain no one would look at my sorry pizza!  Amy was working on the sliders, trying to make them stretch by cutting in half.  We did the same with the real pizza that had just come in.  Looks like either there had been some miscalculation, or the people were loading up for a winter hibernation! 

The game was afoot!

All the food had been served and there was nothing much that we could do downstairs.  So I went up to see the trivia and saw a room full of people, with several tables having teams of 6 players each.  There were a total of 9 rounds and the 4^th round was about to start.  Wilson, who had been managing the upstairs, said that he could get some of the answers from the earlier rounds; though I would I have to see it to believe him.  The topic was music and I fancied my chances of guessing some of the answers.  It started with 80s songs that I recognized and then led to visuals of some musical instruments that I had never seen, including one which was the inspiration for Homer’s ‘Iliad’!  Besides that there were questions on band logos, including a joyous scream when the ‘Van Halen’ logo was displayed.  Wow, these guys were real fans, even cheering when results for the round were announced.

I watched for some time and then went about collecting empty plates and dropping in garbage.  I came back to the kitchen and Kinga dispatched me to the coat-check room.  The game was running late and nobody was coming for their coats.  Plus the coats had been neatly arranged and so there was nothing for me to do.  Wilson came over to give me company and we chatted about the suburban projects and how they may enable the volunteers in those areas who want to help out.   Charles Paul came over, which meant that we were entertained for the rest of the time that we were there.  The quiz was still on, but two ladies came to get their coats.  They said that they had to get up early, though I did ask them if they would have still left if they were winning.  They laughed and left and now it was time for us to do the same.  Jessica brought over one of her other volunteers to relieve us and so we collected our things and went out in the cold.  The rest of our team was going for a drink, though Wilson and I decided to take a rain check.  Both of us had a big day coming up with 3 projects, and which would be more than 12 hours long.  Hopefully it would not involve me making pizza...or lasagna rolls!

Read–With-Me At HGS

Location: House Of The Good Shepherd

Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2014; 6:30-7:45 pm

I had initially signed-up for ‘Pet Therapy’ program, at Covenant House, but then I actually saw how far the commute was, especially for winter time.  In any case, Chicago Cares has a strange policy when it comes to Covenant House, where they have to review and approve your application to attend. I had commented to them how this may dissuade people from attending and some may get tired of waiting for approval and drop out; which is exactly what happened with me.  I saw that there was an opening at HGS and so decided to go there instead.  Wilson said that he would pick me up and as is usually the case when we travel to a project together, we arrived with plenty of time to spare. 

These all will go into a necklace!

I met Rachel, the Volunteer leader for the younger kids program and she said that they were making candy necklaces out of Fruit Loops.  I had my doubts on the fruit loops surviving the necklace making process, but they were not allowed to eat them till they had completed the project.  The younger kids came in and there was a group of 3 siblings.  The older girl told me that she could do handstands and then went on to demonstrate effortlessly.  Then she showed me her slippers, which looked really comfortable and I offered to trade with her.  Her younger brother was trying to insert himself in the conversation and told me that he could do the handstand trick as well, though he was less successful than his sister. Then out of the blue he asked if I was a doctor and I said, yes, in manner of speaking. 

The volunteers started arriving for both, younger and older kids projects.  This included our Volunteer leader, Emily, who was signing-in the volunteers using a smart phone – no doubt being inspired by Wilson.  Rachel was still using paper and I joked with her, saying that she was still stuck in the 90’s!  As we waited, I told Rachel about the colored M&M’s experiment and how she could get the little one’s started on Probability using the fruit loops.  At this, a volunteer standing nearby said that it was too soon.  Come on man.  These kids are 5 years old.  Of course I was joking.  What’s next, you want me to tell them that Santa Claus is made up?  In any case, I told him that it’s never too early, and then walked off before he could argue, following Emily to the reading room downstairs.

Emily had all the volunteers stand in a circle and as we waited for the kids to arrive, she asked us an icebreaker question, “What are you most looking forward to.”  Many said that it was the end of winter or some vacation trip somewhere.  One even said a business trip; though the kind of places I visit are hardly something I look forward to!  One guy said that it was seeing his daughter, which was probably the sweetest response.  Then it was just me and Wilson and I said that it was this project, since I never want to look forward to things in the future and face potential disappointment.  But that’s a discussion for another day.  I knew Wilson would have a weird response and he did not disappoint, saying that he was looking forward to the “Zombie Apocalypse”. Well, I have seen classes being offered to deal with that and I’m assuming he’s attended those!

Where are these guys going?

Since there were enough volunteers, Wilson left to help out with the younger kids.  Our kids arrived, and as usual they ran to pick their favorites.  The kid that I had worked with last week ran over and held my hand.  It had taken a long time, but finally someone wanted me.  Emily asked volunteers to pair up and I asked the kid whom he wanted to pair with, and he picked a girl Lindsey.  I told her that this fellow liked monsters and thus we should expect more books like that.  Sure enough, he picked a book that looked spooky, called ‘Bears In The Night’, and no it was not a review of the ‘Chicago Bears’ football performance under lights!  To my surprise, he also picked a book on ‘Nursery Rhymes’.  We went and sat on a couch with Lindsey and me on ether side of him, and started on the poems book.  Like last week, he did not want to read, saying that he couldn’t read. He then pointed at me, indicating that I should read a page.  After I finished that page, he pointed at Lindsey, which was a sign for her to take over.  He would alternate pointing at each of us and we would switch.  I said to Lindsey that he would make a good CEO of a corporation some day!

The poems were familiar ones from my childhood, though I noticed some subtle changes from what I remembered.  It set me off on a nostalgic trip as I remembered reading these many many many years ago.  Lindsey said that we should skip ”Old McDonald” since it ran for 5 pages, at which he wasn’t impressed.  We realized soon that he was just putting us on and could indeed read, since he was ahead of us and knew when we were close to finishing a page.  He just wanted to make us work.  Next, we moved to the Bears book and it was about some Bear cubs running out in the middle of the night into the woods, getting scared by an owl, and then coming back home to their beds.  It was meant to teach the kids memorization, since many words just built on one another, though that wasn’t his goal here. He wanted his monsters.  The Bears book was done and our kid went and got a bunch of books, including the Robot and Vultures book from last week.  We started with a spooky looking book called ‘Bats In The Library’, but halfway through it he lost interest and then moved to a book on weather facts and Guinness records. Not many monsters in this one.  The boy could definitely read since he was reading the world weather, though he was also directing Lindsey and me to alternate reading the pages as well. 

Emily announced that it was time to play and our choices were ‘Silly Putty’, coloring or some card game.  Our kid couldn’t wait to get his hands on the ‘Silly Putty’ and he started building what he termed as the “Alien City”.  All the colors had been mixed together into a giant grey mass and also available to us were some molds and punches.  The boy was using all of these and was on his way, making structures that could only exist in a city from another world.  He wouldn’t tell us what his name was, and I had been trying to get it out of him since last week.  He then said something, though the other kids said that it wasn’t his name and he was just making it up.  You sly little devil!  Then all of us had a great time guessing his name and making fun of him, though he was joining in as well.  Speaking of guessing, some of the kids were playing a guessing game like ’20 Questions’.  I joined in and one kid asked me what was long, yellow and with two ears.  I said it was a Giraffe, and he seemed amazed that I had guessed correctly.

We played for sometime and our kid kept building his city, though it was soon time to leave.  The kids formed a line to leave as the rest of us cleaned up.  Our kid waved at us and I had enjoyed my time with him and Lindsey.  It is true that continuity makes a huge difference and coming two weeks in a row had certainly helped in building a rapport.  Wilson gave Rachel and me a ride and told us that he was almost done planning a new project with HGS, which would involve the kids in drama like skits, as well as story telling.  I look forward to that for sure.  Hey, my kid might even make me dress like a monster!

Celebration Of Service In Honor Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Location: Burr Elementary School

Date: Saturday, January 18, 2014; 7:30 am-2:00 pm

Last year I had the absolute privilege to lead the good people of ‘Target’ at Chicago Care’s annual ‘Celebration Of Service’ program.  It had been a fulfilling experience, one where I had seen generosity of spirit that one seldom encounters in their professional life.  So I was definitely intending to be a part of this years project, though Chicago Cares had stopped putting their Annual events on the calendar, preferring instead to send out invitations.  Indeed, I received an email inviting me to join as a leader and I was also presented with a variety of sites to choose from. I went with ‘Burr Elementary School’, which was nearer than any of the other venues, though it would still be a hike for me.  Andre, our Chicago Cares rep sent an email asking if we could come for an on-site meeting on a Wednesday afternoon.  Obviously I would not be able to, and so he said that there would a conference call later for those who couldn't attend.  Being a fan of the telephone, I said that would work!

Burr Elementary School

Besides Andre and myself, the other attendees on the conference call were someone from ‘Target’ and Stacey, who was our Primary Leader for the occasion.  I had shadowed her for a ‘Youth In Services’ project and found her to be an excellent leader.  I knew we would be in great hands.   I learned that there were 6 projects - painting each of the 3 floors, painting stairwells, painting a wall mural and making a tile mosaic.  Since I had missed the on-site meeting, all the other tasks had been claimed and I had been assigned painting the stairwells.  My only prior painting experience had been helping my graduate school roommate paint a room in his house and to this day he reminds me of the terrible job that I had done.  So needless to say, I wasn’t feeling too confident!  One of the major changes to the way things were being done this year was the integration of leaders from ‘Target’ to work with the leaders from Chicago Cares.  In fact, at this location I was the only other Chicago Cares leader besides Stacey.  Before getting into the specifics, Andre started with an icebreaker and asked about our favorite pizza place.  I said that at the risk of being ridiculed, I was not a big fan of the ‘Chicago Deep Dish’ pizza.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I will wolf it down if it were in front of me, but I don’t seek it out, preferring the thin crust or the 'Neapolitan' pizza, as served in ‘Bar Toma’.  Following this, we discussed our tasks for Saturday and then that was it.  Now I had to show up and somehow get the stairwell’s painted.

The stairwell we had to paint 

I took a cab to the school and arrived to find that Stacey was already there, as were all the ‘Target’ leaders.  Also present was Rich from Chicago Cares, who would be our staff rep.  Stacey introduced me to Principal Klee and I requested him to take me around the stairwells, so that I could see what we were up against.  Well, it wasn’t just one, but two sets of stairwells that we had to deal with, and there were three floors on each!  There was a wooden molding running halfway across the hall and Principal Klee told me that they wanted the lower half to be painted purple and the upper part white.  Seeing everything, I knew that it was going to require all of the 28 volunteers that we had been allocated.  Stacey asked all of the leaders to assemble in the auditorium and got everyone excited for the day.  She really is a good leader.  I was pleased that one of the ’Target’ leaders, Nikki, was going to be helping out on one of the stairwells, meaning that I would have to supervise just the other one.  Furthermore, she had some experience in painting and I told her that I would be leveraging that. 

The cards that the kids had made for us

All of our supplies were on the stage in the auditorium and our immediate task was to take them to the station where we would be working.  The paint cans were gallon sized and carrying a box of 4 of those wasn’t much fun.  But I looked at Nikki doing it and that was all of the motivation that I needed.  Once upstairs, the two of us split all the supplies into two and I then had to carry half to my stairwell.  Principal Klee introduced me to a couple, Toric and Rochelle, who are parents of two kids in the school and they had come to volunteer with the rest of us.  This was a fantastic gesture and I appreciated that a lot, especially when Toric mentioned that he knew a bit about architecture and construction.  I told him that he was going to be an important asset for me on this painting task.  I learned that their daughter is in 2^nd grade and son in pre-K.  All the kids of the school had made “Thank You” cards for the volunteers to take home and they showed me the one that their daughter had made.  I said that I would definitely like to keep that one once we were done. 

As we were preparing, the bus with the ‘Target’ volunteers arrived and all the leaders assembled back in the auditorium to greet them.  It started with Rich showing a video of ‘Target’ and their association with the ‘MLK Celebration Of Service’ day.  It seems like ‘Target’ has a corporate goal of contributing a certain number of volunteer hours per year.  Kudos to their commitment!  After the video, Stacey introduced her leadership team, all of whom were women.  When she came to me, she said that I may not be a pretty woman, but I was a good leader.  Hey, at least half of that “pretty woman” thing is true!  After this the Senior District Manager of ‘Target’ spoke to welcome everyone, as did Principal Klee, and we were ready to start. 

The volunteers were from different stores and everyone wanted to stick together and work with the leader from their store.  From the ones who had signed up, not everyone from Nikki’s store had come, meaning that we were going to be woefully short.  We split whomever we had into two teams with one person, Emma, looked like a natural leader and I told her that she was with me.  We came over to my side with about 6 people, half of what we were supposed to get, though I also had Toric and Rochelle.  I asked Stacey and Rich to find me more people, and then we got down to work.  I put 2 people each on Basement-1^st Floor, 1^st-2^nd and 2^nd-3^rd floor.  We started by sanding the wall, which was to be followed by giving it a wash.  Only then could the actual painting start.  The trick was to get the trim done first around the railing and moldings and then roll over with the paint.  Now, these are things that I wouldn't have known without being told.

Even I had to chip in

As people scrubbed, I started laying down the drop cloths on various floors and Rochelle helped me tape them to the floor.  That took some time and next I told people that someone should start with the trim while others followed with the roller.  Initially I was scrambling to get basic things for them like gloves, extenders for the top half of the walls etc.  In fact, the extenders were a precious commodity and when I found one, I told a volunteer to guard it with her life.  I said that I would send people to her if they needed to borrow it.  Rich sent over two volunteers and I promptly assigned them, but they soon disappeared.  Was it something that I said?  But even then everyone was on their way and since we were short, I picked up a brush and started doing the purple trim between the 1^st and 2^nd floor.  It was a bit tricky going around the hand railing and I was sitting on the stairs to do the base, then the hand rail and then going up the stairs.  Between the two floors I had to also do the trim around a window.  It was slow, but steady work.

Rich had found two new volunteers for me and I asked them to follow me by painting with rollers, the wall on which I had done the trims.  Fortunately they stuck around, though they were fast and soon catching up to me, meaning that I had to pick up my pace.  It was like putting down the rails when the train is approaching. I finished my trim work and then went over to help Emma, who was doing the same on 2^nd-3^rd floor.  The folks in the basement were on their second coat of paint, but there was a lot of work still remaining on the top floors.  The groups painting the hallways were almost done and so I requested Stacey to let me borrow some of those people, and they did come.  Since basement- 1^st floor was the one completed section, I asked that team to start the clean-up and work their way up.  We were up against the clock and it would require everyone working strategically. 

Emma had been fantastic and I had enjoyed working with her.  She was also fearless as she climbed on top of a steep ladder to do the higher sections of the wall.  She said that she was a night manager and is used to climbing ladders to stack supplies.  She also goes to college during the day, studying business.  I asked if she ever slept and she shrugged.  And here she was on her day off, not just contributing, but with tremendous energy and enthusiasm.  An organization that has someone like her will always succeed and ‘Target’ is lucky to have her…as was I.

Our stairwell, painted!

A Chicago Cares staff member, Patty, was doing a walkabout and Rich introduced me saying that I was a super volunteer.  As much as I would have loved to stay and chat, I had work to do and was trying to direct people to finish up their tasks and clean at the same time.  Soon we were done to the best of our ability, in the time that we had, and now it was cleaning-up and storing the various ladders and the other remaining supplies.  Some of the paint had spilled on the stairs and it wasn’t easy to get it off.  A couple of men were on their hands and knees’ trying to take it off using sponge and it was a bit tricky. There was a big spill elsewhere and I tried to mop it off, though it was stubborn and required hands and knees approach as well.  Everyone who had come had worked hard, not least Toric and Rochelle.  It had been a true team effort and while it wasn’t the best clean-up, the team had done their best.

The kids would be pleased

I carried a heavy ladder from the 2^nd floor to the auditorium, where the volunteers were having their lunch.  The school was looking fantastic and Principal Klee said that they would patch-up whatever was still unfinished.  Stacey spoke at the wrap-up and thanked everyone for their participation.  I told her the quotes from MLK that I had heard last year and she used one of them, “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve”.  Rich also thanked everyone and said that we were one of the 15 sites around Chicago that had projects going on today.  We took group pictures before the volunteers left and Stacey said that she would give me a ride to downtown, which was good since it was snowing.  It had been an exhausting day and I was tired.  But the energy of the volunteers had been infectious.  Unfortunately the cards that the kids had made we gone and I couldn’t get one as a souvenir.  But I have the memory of the day and the paint that we had put on the walls would hopefully last a long time.  The Principal had said that it would be great for the kids to come in on Monday and see their school painted a bright shade of purple.  I wish I could be there to see that, but this sense of accomplishment will do for now.  It was the hardest that I have worked on a project and someone later asked me if I would do it again. 

"Always".

Read–With-Me At HGS

Location: House Of The Good Shepherd

Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2014; 6:30-7:45 pm

As has been the case during my visits to various places this winter, it was extremely slippery on the sidewalks as I walked to HGS.  Even if my cautious approach, I was early enough and arrived to find that Wilson was opening doors for everyone.  Besides him there were other regulars like Galen, Marc and our Volunteer leader Tanya.  In fact, it looked like it was going to be a full house.  I chatted with Galen about the Chicago Cares project that she leads and which teaches kids Geography.  She mentioned that ‘Target’ had given the project a grant whose objective was to educate on the various U.S. States.  She said that the problem was the book which was being used, since it did not have information on all the states.  I said that perhaps it was written before the Union expanded!

The kids for the junior program arrived and as usual flocked towards Galen.  After that group left, Tanya led the rest of us down to the reading area, where unlike the previous times, the kids were already there.  Many kids went over and hugged the adults that they already knew and obviously I wasn’t one of them.  We got the crates of books out and Tanya said that we should go around and introduce ourselves.  We did that and then the kids had go and select a book.  I asked a little girl if she wanted to read with me and she said no, and that she had picked another guy.   Aah, the age and the situation may change but the words remain the same!  Marc was popular as usual and had 2 kids reading with him.  I saw another girl trying to select a book and I waited for her, hoping that she would pick me…but she didn’t.  So in the end it was me waiting with Wilson and Tanya, while all the other volunteers started reading with the kids. 

Is that a monster?

Tanya said that we would be making paper snowflakes as our activity after the reading, and I said that since I wasn’t doing anything, I could practice making those.  This involved folding the paper in halves and then making some cuts so that when you unfold, you get a pattern that was like a snowflake.  Both, Tanya and I struggled to get the exact folds and as I was doing that, Wilson came and asked if I would be willing to read with a little boy.  I was more than delighted and hurried over before he could change his mind.  I asked him what book he wanted to read and he was mumbling something, but did not have a specific choice.  I saw a book on cats and asked if he wanted that and he said that he didn’t like cats. He finally chose a book called ‘The Good Little Girl’, and that was because there was someone on the cover whom he referred to as a “monster”! 

We sat down on the couch and as we opened the book, I could tell that he wasn’t going to be totally invested in the actual reading.  In fact, I saw that he was making up his own words, rather than following the ones on the page.  He was more interested in finding out about the monster and on all of the pages; he would try to associate everything with the monster.  I started reading the book to him and found it to be quite verbose.  So instead of reading everything verbatim, I decided to tell him the story instead.  It was about a girl “Miranda”, who becomes jealous and rude when she doesn’t get what she wants, and is taken over by an evil looking girl, “Lucretia” – the kid’s monster.  Now “Miranda” is trapped inside “Lucretia”, and as “Lucretia” becomes more bossy, “Miranda” realizes her mistake and how she had been nasty towards everyone.  As with every other children’s stories, there was a moral to the tale and a nice ending.  In the book “Miranda” had a dog and a teddy bear.  I asked my kid if he likes teddies and he said yes.  I asked him what he would name a teddy if he had one and he said something that sounded like “Umpa”.  He then said that I was like “Umpa”. A teddy then. That was a first!

Looks like fun

My kid was distracted and looking at what was happening with his friends around us.  He called someone stupid and I said that it was wrong to say that, reminding him of the story that we had just read.  He wanted to take a look at the pictures again and whenever someone hideous looking appeared, he would call it a monster and ask me to read that page again.  Even with these multiple readings, he never had much interest and so we went and picked another book called, “Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot vs. The Voodoo Vultures From Venus”.  That was a mouthful if there ever was any!  I think the reason he chose this was because of the "Robot" and he was definitely interested at first.  Once again, we sat down and looked at the pictures, while I read some of the relevant parts of the story.  He liked it when the "Vultures" appeared, perhaps because they reminded him of the monsters. 

We struggled with this for a bit, till Tanya announced that it was time for the Arts and Crafts activity and we grabbed some chairs at the table.  He wanted to pick blue colored scissors and paper and then before we could begin, wanted to see the instructions - in fact demanded to see them.  For someone who was half of my height, this was a power move.  There weren’t any instructions, so he proceeded to start cutting and I said that before we did that, we needed to fold the paper.  “You do it then”, he said, now clearly in charge.  So I made some cuts and a sorry looking snowflake like thing appeared.  He now wanted to stick something on it and asked me to get the glue from the cabinet, knowing where all the supplies were kept.  We went and took some glue sticks, most of which were empty.  But he found some to put some on the snowflake and then he asked me to tie a thread around it so that he could wear around his neck.  It was so long so as to reach his shoes, but he still wore it and walked about the room.  It was time for us to leave and I helped clean up and put everything back in the cabinet.  The kids left, including my boy with the contraption around his neck.  For an evening that had started slowly, it had certainly picked up.  I had enjoyed my time with the kid and I hope that he had with me…even though he preferred the monsters.

Young Scientists At McCormick

Location: McCormick Elementary School

Date: Saturday, January 11, 2014; 10:00 am-12:30 pm

Once again, I was going back to a project that I had last attended almost a year ago.  Then I had encountered some really spirited kids, including a little girl who had won me over.  One of the experiments that we had done was a probability one using M&M’s.   This time, our volunteer leader Maureen sent out the instructions beforehand and once again, M&M’s were on the agenda.  Looks like they are on an annual cycle as well!  Wilson who is regular at this venue picked me up in the morning, which was definitely more convenient than taking public transportation.  We arrived at the school to see that several volunteers had assembled, but some of them were there for other programs like, Arts and Crafts, Reading and a project titled, 'Adventures In Math'.  Wow, talk about selling math to kids!

Besides the M&M game, we were also doing an experiment to understand Acids and Bases, and also an activity called 'Winter Worksheet', which was a word search game.  There is a cupboard where all the supplies are usually kept and for the next few minutes, I tried to look for what we would need today, just as the kids arrived.  Maureen keeps the kids on a tight leash and while they were making some noise, all of them took their regular seats.  As an icebreaker, Maureen asked the volunteers to introduce themselves and state their favorite color.  This is always a tricky one for me since I really like all colors and it depends on the context.  For example, I like to wear black; I think green eyes are fantastic, red for cars and so and so forth.  But I went with violet since it looks sophisticated and is makes a melodious sound when you say it.  

All the volunteers took their places on each table and I was next to one with two little girls, so I asked if I could join them and they nodded.  Since this is an annual program, all the kids have a badge that they made at the beginning of the year and which they collect from Maureen when they come in each time.  Both of these girls did not have one.  I asked their names and they introduced themselves as Millie and Sandra.  I said I would look for their badges and after a bit of searching I was able to find the one for Millie, but not for Sandra.  So I gave her a Chicago Cares sticker and several colored markers, for her to design a colorful nametag.  She however just wrote her name and was ready to go.

M&M's again

We started with the Word Search puzzle and with the winter theme, had words like “Snowy”, “Downhill” etc.  Having been a part of some competitive word search puzzles during ‘What’s The Word’ projects at Lakeview Nursing, I was also looking for words along with the two girls, determined that our group found all the words as soon as possible.  It was apparent that Millie was really smart and able to find a lot of the words fairly quickly.  Sandra was slower than her and we were working together.  Both of them were extremely shy and smiled a lot.  We found all of the words just as time ran out and pleased with our efforts, moved to the next task with the M&M’s.  There was a cup of different colored M&M’s in front of us and the idea was for both of them to alternate picking from the cup and then noting on a worksheet which color they had found from the available Red, Orange, Yellow, Brown, Blue and Green.  After 25 tries each we would count the total, tally by color and then calculate the probability of finding certain colors based off that data.  As luck would have it, Sandra kept finding Orange and each time she did that, she would look at me and smile.  I was beginning to get fond of the little one.

Our graph

After they both had their 25 turns, we did some preliminary probability, though I did not want to reduce to lowest fractions, since I wasn’t sure they knew how.  I remembered one summer afternoon long long time ago...in another lifetime, when my dad was trying to teach me fractions and I was definitely older than them.  Another volunteer on our table was going all out with his kids, doing some complex math with lowest common denominators etc. as the kids looked at him in confused horror.  Hey, at least I had gotten a smile.  We answered some of the questions on the worksheet and then using colored crayons the girls filled out a graphical chart depicting how many M&M's of various colors they had found.  Once they were done, they started coloring their 'Winter Worksheet' from earlier, while I picked up the crayons and did my own graph combining their results.  The kids were allowed to eat their M&M's and Sandra kept offering me.  She would remove one M&M, put it on the paper and nudge me.  I would thank her, pop it in my mouth and then after some time she would nudge me again.

We took a break and the next experiment was ‘Acids/Bases’.  We had 9 different solutions – Soda, Milk, Baking Soda, Dish Soap, Poweraid, OJ, Lemon Juice, Distilled Water and Tap Water.  Idea was to write down what we were testing, guess if it was going to be acidic, basic or neutral and then validating by dipping a litmus paper in each using tweezers.  We were to observe the color change against the primer that Maureen had and then reporting back the pH number and our conclusions.  Myself, another volunteer and our 4 kids combined to do this together and each kid had a choice of what they wanted to test.  I must say that I was surprised at some of the data, for example Poweraid is really acidic and so was dish soap.  I said that it could be due to the citrus in the dish soap, while the other volunteer said that he should stop drinking the Poweraid based on this evidence of acidity!  The kids really enjoyed this activity, especially watching the pH paper color change.  Sandra, in her typical shy manner, kept asking me what she should write in her observations worksheet.  Man, she was sweet.

From the most Acidic to Basic

We were done and before clean-up, I asked the kids to arrange everything from the most acidic – lemon juice - to the most basic - baking soda.  After that we disposed of all the solutions into a giant jug, which looked as disgusting as anything I have seen after it was full of all the solutions.  The time was up and the kids formed a line to leave.  Maureen has really disciplined them well, for example whenever she would say, “Fourth graders”, everyone would stop whatever they were doing, freeze, clap and look at her.  After the kids left we tidied up and the Maureen assembled all of the volunteers for reflection.  She said that “Service without reflection is just work”.  We discussed the parts we liked, what we could do better etc.  I left with Wilson and it was really a shame that I had been unable to come for almost a year.  I had really enjoyed my time with the girls, especially little Sandra.  Hopefully I will see her shy smile soon. 

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

More Organizing Fun At Night Ministry!

Location: Night Ministry

Date: Tuesday, January 07, 2014; 6:00-8:30 pm

Here we go again

The last time that I had done this project had been my first outing as an EC for One Brick and had led to a bit of, well, misunderstanding regarding others perception about my role.  Since then I have had several other projects as EC under my belt and am a lot more confident.  This evening however I was not the EC, in fact having signed up only because the Chicago Cares project that I was supposed to attend got cancelled due to the weather.  And weather was certainly a factor as I arrived at Damen CTA stop and started walking towards the ‘Night Ministry’ offices through treacherous unpaved snow.  For getting there you have to go under the ‘Metra’ bridge and since there was construction going on there, I had to find an alternate route, which was more harrowing than anything I have encountered on my way to these projects. 

I arrived at the site with my life and limbs intact to find that most folks were already there, including Rich and Dave.  Kinga, who was the EM, had an assembly line of several volunteers sorting something in one room and so asked Rich, Dave and me to join her in the bigger room for another task.  There were several bins and boxes all over the place and our first task was to carry all “Baby Products” such as diapers, pacifiers and other boxes outside and stack them up in the reception area in what can be best described as a “nook”.  While Dave and I did that, Rich labeled boxes of towels and bed sheets and then we had to take those boxes to another room and stack them there.  No kidding that this project is titles “More Organizing”!  But it was all good since it meant that the organization was getting a lot of donations and it would all find its way to the people who need them the most.

What's "magical" about them?

There were several bins stacked to the brim with winter accessories and Kinga wanted the three of us to sort through them; and separate the winter hats, gloves, socks, scarves etc.  I started with a bin which had a combination of heavy-duty winter gloves; light colored gloves, as well as something called “magic gloves”.  Now I have read and seen ‘Harry Potter’ several times over, but never had I ever come across an accessory such as that!  The other items in that bin were dark hats, light colored hats as well as knitted hats.  We had to decide if the hats that we were sorting were dark or light and put them in separate piles, which went into their own bins.  It was the same with gloves.  Some of the gloves were obviously feminine and we sorted them with the “light pile”.  There was a lot to sort and it was taking us a long time; plus Kinga kept dumping new stuff in the pile.  It was never-ending, but once again, it meant only good things.  The long time we spent on the floor gave us an opportunity to chat on variety of topics ranging from books on kindle to TV shows that were available for live streaming.  Plus, Rich told us about the ‘Chinese American Museum Of Chicago’, where he serves on the board.  The bins were getting full and I asked Kinga where we could find new ones.  She said that empty bins were a precious commodity here and that I should “sit inside” a bin to push things in tighter.  Bet I never thought I would hear that when I woke up this morning!

The Stocking

Despite Kinga dumping more stuff on our pile, we managed to sort everything and stuffed and stocked the bins...with some of us providing the required pressure to seal!  I went over to the other room where the assembling line was , well, “unstuffing” stockings.  Who says things have to only work one ways.  Various bins were being filled with things that were coming out, such as toothpastes, toothbrushes, mints, deodorants, playing cards, tissues, gift cards, notepads, pens etc.  I joined them to help out and it was kind of poetic that I do so. One of my friends is on the ‘Young Professionals Board’ for the ‘Night Ministry’ and her team had organized ”Stocking Stuffing Drive” for the holidays; to which I had contributed some items for toddlers.  While these stockings appeared to be for older people, it was funny that I should be present when we “unstuffed” them.  Aah, my holiday life had come a full circle!

All done!

Kinga apparently wasn’t done with us and she called Rich, Dave and myself back to the earlier room since there were more things to sort.  While Rich and Dave dug into more gloves and hats, I made pairs of socks by turning one into other – a technique I learned just then – and then tossing them into a pile.  This also meant that once we were done, all the bins that had been tightly shut had to be reopened to put these new things in!  We managed to do that and then the final task for me was to stack the bins of thermal socks in a corner and then we were done.  Rich was carrying a bag full of toys and other kids stuff for his other projects as we left to go to a nearby bar for drinks.  We had done a terrific job in 2.5 hours and Kinga is a fantastic leader for such projects.  Without help it would have taken 'Night Ministry' a long time to accomplish this.  Plus, it had been nice to catch up with folks that I truly admire for their work ethic and general attitude.  Organizing Fun indeed!