Location: Night Ministry
Date: Tuesday, January 07, 2014; 6:00-8:30 pm
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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!
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