Location: Pump It Up
Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2014; 4:45-8:00
pm
I had been excited because a buddy had said that he would
spend the evening with me to celebrate my birthday. But it turned out to be a false alarm and so
I signed up for this project. I had never been to this after-school center and
today was their end-of-the-year field trip to someplace called ‘Pump It Up’. I had no idea what that was, though the
instructions we had received from Chicago Cares the previous day was to wear
socks! Well, there’s always a first time
for everything. I took the train west
and it was a neighborhood that I do not always visit. I arrived at the center to see that Martha
from Chicago Cares was waiting outside and as I signed the sheet, I was pleased
to see Rocky’s name show up. He was a
volunteer I had met during the very first project that I had led last year and
he is a class act if there ever was one.
People are always amazed that I remember names; places and moments from
a long ago and my response is that if that person made an impression or if
that person or moment is important, you would always remember.
Then everyone
debates
I boarded the bus and saw that some of the kids had already
assembled. Soon, the other volunteers arrived and I noticed that our Volunteer leader and some others seemed to be regular and knew the
kids well. The leader said to me and another
new volunteer Mary, that rather than sit around we should mingle with the
kids. I responded by saying that this
was not the first children’s project that I have done and usually a good leader
starts a project with an ice breaker to get the kids and volunteers introduced
to each other. I don’t care how long
someone has been leading a project, but if
you demonstrate incompetence, the other occasions account for nothing. Yes, I
do hold people to the standards I set for myself as a leader. I overheard one little girl say that
yesterday had been her birthday. I asked
how old she was and she had just turned 11.
I said that it was my birthday today and now it was her turn to ask how
old I was. I replied that it was much
older than 11 and I was definitely eligible to drive!
The true reality
 |
| The best birthday party place |
We arrived at ‘Pump It
Up’, which is essentially a place with giant inflatables and is quite
popular as a rental for kid’s birthday parties.
It was unlikely that families of the kids who were with us had the means
to organize parties over here and so today was definitely a special occasion
for them. I walked in with a little girl
with 3 ponytails and I asked if she was excited, and she replied in the affirmative. Before we
began, the staff announced that there were 2 rules – everyone would come down
the slides feet first and that everyone needed to be wearing socks. Aah, now it made sense. We went inside the first room and it had 3
giant inflatable things – a bouncy house, a slide and an obstacle course. All of the kids were screaming with joy and
quickly ran off to one of the 3 play areas.
All except the little girl that I had walked in with. She was sobbing since she did not have any
socks on and so could not join the others.
The staff members mentioned that they did have socks for sale and I was
about to get her a pair, when one of the other volunteers came in with socks
for her. Her face lit up with joy and
she went up the slide. I said that I
would wait at the bottom to receive her and she had better scream as she came
down; something which she dutifully did so.
I'd rather see the
world
I went inside the bouncy house and it reminded me of being
in a boat with choppy water. But I soon
got my footing and just as a room goes from darkness to light with the flip of
a switch, a similar thing happened with me – all the worries and anxieties of
the day disappeared. My heart was filled
with a joy that I had not experienced for years and I became one of them. I played with the kids in the bouncy house
and then got challenged by a little girl to a race through the obstacle
course. It was difficult getting though
all of it, but I had loads of fun doing it.
I kept getting challenged by various girls and so did the race several
times, getting smoked on each occasion.
But I could have cared less. I
was exhausted and decided to take a break, when another little girl asked me to go on the slide with her.
Climbing up to the top was a challenge but once we were up there, she
took my hand and we came down together.
I was enjoying myself thoroughly and did a couple more turns on each of
the play areas in this room.
The way it used to
be
 |
| The slide |
We were then taken to a second room with an even bigger
bouncy house with a basketball court, steeper slides, a wall where you had to
run up to put a tag, and a rock climbing wall.
The kids went crazy again and I went inside the bouncy house several
times for to try my hand at basketball, once in between a competitive game
between 2 teams. One girl asked me to
lift her up so that she could make a basket and while she was little, trying to
lift someone up on a moving platform is not easy, and we were both lucky to not
end up on our backs! I went and
participated in the tag game, which was a wall of colored Velcro tags and you
had to run at full speed, jump up, and post your flag as high as possible. It was impossible to do this without falling
down and that was the fun of it. Rocky
was good at this game and was enjoying it with a group of kids, all of whom
were trying to better him. Some of the
other kids were climbing up the rock wall and all in all, everyone was
participating wholeheartedly and having a blast.
A little bit of
freedom's all we lack
All good things must come to an end and our time was soon
up. We took a group picture and now it
was the pizza party. The kid’s
teacher had accompanied us for this outing and she made each kid say what they
were thankful for this entire school year.
Everyone had something to say and many picked something that they had
learned. The girl with
the ponytails was actually the bus drivers daughter and wasn't usually with this group. It was nice of the teacher to
invite her and when her turn came to say something, she ran in the corner shyly
and said, “It’s too many people”. Man, she was precious. The teacher made the kid’s say grace and then
they dug into the pizza. I chatted with
Rocky while this was going on and soon everyone was ready to leave. I wasn’t taking the bus back with them and so
said goodbye to Rocky and my other fellow volunteers. It had been a spectacular evening.
So catch me if you
can,
I went and got a glass for champagne for myself and it had
indeed been a long day. Later, as I sat
in a restaurant I thought about everything that had happened today…or not
happened. I had just a couple of people wish me and other than the two projects with Wilson, had not seen any
friends. Last year had been special
since someone had even made cake for me.
But if I really think about it so had today. I had seen people who were currently down on
their luck, but fighting the battle of life with dignity. I had met a lady who had overcome her
disability to create something truly magical. And a little girl had held my hand as I went
down a slide to have one of the most outstanding experiences of my adult
life. I told the server it was my
birthday and asked for a small cake. As I blew
out the imaginary candle and made a wish it was clear to me that while the day may not have been filled with presents, it still was a gift.
I'm
going back
“Going
Back”, written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King, 1966
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