Location: Lincoln Perry Apartment
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2015; 8:00 am-2:00 pm
This was it. I took
an ‘Uber’ to the site and discussed
with the driver what today was all about.
Paul had told me that we were scheduled to get some ‘VIP’ visits, including ‘Alderman’
Dowell and Jeanne – the ‘CEO’ of
Chicago Cares - and Leslie Blum - the founder.
I arrived to see that Mr. Tidwell was already at work making
coffee. He opened the door of the office
for me and I saw that Chicago Cares had left a lot of supplies for
us. Before I could get to that, I got a
phone call from ‘Potbelly’ saying
that the food for the volunteers was here.
I got it from a van outside, which was also going to supply other sites.
 |
| Heck ya! |
I came back inside to see that Rita had arrived and so while
Rita and Mr. Tidwell put the food inside the refrigerator, I got down to
unpacking the supplies, including all the Bingo prizes. The menu for the day was eggs, bacon,
sausages, biscuits and banana “parfaits”
– or as Rita said, “Banana pudding pie”. Looking at the instructions made me think
that it would not be an easy task to pull off.
I saw that there was a sign in the room saying “Volunteers At Work”, which I went and posted outside the
facility. Then there were several green
pamphlets, each of which had a unique fact, either about the neighborhood, ‘Bronzeville’ or about the facility we
were in. I loved this concept and I went
about with another resident posting them everywhere, including the bathroom
doors, all over the dining area, kitchen etc. – wherever the volunteers could
see and learn about the community that they were serving.
Another volunteer named Celeste showed up along with her
Dad. She is a regular here and wanted to
help. Well, more the merrier and so I
told her that she was in charge of kitchen.
I got a text from Chicago Cares that 19 volunteers had departed for
here. Before they could get here, Jeanne
and Leslie came, along with 2 other Chicago Cares staffers - Jim and Nancy -
who were just starting with the organization.
I told them that the facts pamphlet idea was fantastic one, and Jeanne
appreciated it. They were here to meet
with the ‘Alderman’, but since she
was running late, they left just as the volunteer bus arrived. I gathered everyone in the room where we
would be doing the “Fleece Blankets”. There were 2 main groups, one from ‘Northwestern Medical’ and another from
some company. Many were with families,
either with kids or parents.
 |
| "Fun Fact" signage |
I started by giving them the welcome speech as prescribed by
Chicago Cares - building bridges, communication, learning from each other etc.
- and then introduced Rita. She needed a
few people for blankets and I took the rest to the kitchen. I allocated a few to Celeste for cooking and
the rest – including a couple of teenage boys for decorations. In the kitchen, a few had started to make the
banana pudding, but after a few steps, Celeste and I decided to abandon
it since it needed time to cook and also to chill. So before we even started, we had lost one of
our menu items. A lot of residents were
already here and waiting for their food.
This was because the regular breakfast project here starts at 10 am and
someone had forgotten to inform that this was a special occasion commencing at
noon. I asked the volunteers to
improvise and just chop bananas, top off with whipped cream and the put some
vanilla wafer biscuits on the side. We
served this to the residents while the cooking went on. At least the banana pudding had served some
purpose.
 |
| "Fleece Blanket" session |
Celeste’s dad was wrapping utensils in tissue paper and one
of the residents asked me to ensure that he had gloves on! The resident was right of course. In the meanwhile, Celeste was trying her best
to hurry up and she was doing a fantastic job in coordinating the kitchen and
sending out some food in batches. We
served the residents and I asked the two teenage boys to help me organize the
volunteer meals. They were excited at
receiving this important assignment and arranged the boxes by category -
Turkey, Mediterranean and one mystery box!
I also told the boys that it was their task to ensure other volunteers
came in for their meals and also to give them water. A few of our volunteers started going for
their lunch and I asked them to sit with the residents. Some did, but others stayed in the small room
where the food was arranged. I chatted
with two little girls, one in 4th and the other in 6th
grade. I asked if they would be the “echo” during Bingo and they agreed.
Now that the cooking was done - thanks to Celeste - I
recruited some volunteers to clean. The
rest were on Bingo. The two teenage boys
were going to call the numbers while a few others spread out amongst the
residents. I announced that Bingo was
ready to start and asked how many winners they wanted per board and the crowd
said 3. One lady said that she needed
some help seeing the numbers and so I assigned another little girl to be her
partner. It was nice to see kids pairing
up with the senior residents. I went to
check on the blanket crew and they were progressing well. I came back and saw a woman announcing the
Bingo. I learned that was ‘Alderman’ Dowell. After she finished the round, we chatted for
a bit and she said that if Chicago Cares ever needed something, she and her office
were ready to help.
 |
| My wonderful team |
A gentleman was manning the Bingo prizes station and I
discussed with him which prizes were being selected. Every place is different and over here the
bathroom rolls were the most popular, and hard candy the least. We chatted for a bit and he said that he had
been participating for last 5 years and it had always been a school painting
expedition This was the first year they
were doing a project like this. I said
that it was important for everyone to get an experience of everything that
Chicago Cares does and so it was a good thing to do something like this. After the game ended - it has proceeded quite
peacefully - I made an announcement that there was going to be a blanket making
activity and the guests should wait if they wanted to participate. A lot of them did. Rita and the volunteers brought many of the
pre-cut blankets in this room and then helped the residents tie knots to finish
them.
 |
| Party Time! |
One of the residents asked me if she could have the spare
bananas and I said of course. In fact a
lot of food was still remaining and Mr. Tidwell said we should just leave it
out and the guests may take it. If not,
he would put it away. One lady asked if
she could have boxes of the ‘Vanilla
Wafers’ and I said sure. I gave her
couple of those. Then I chatted with a
lady who was in good spirits, despite undergoing 3 days of dialysis for every
week of the last 8 years. I said that
she was very strong to do so and when I moved away to other duties, she thanked
me for chatting with her. Once all the
residents had their blankets, I gathered the volunteers for reflection. After I had thanked them, as had Rita, I
asked for feedback and what they had learnt.
I said that I had learnt about the rich history of this neighborhood. Many spoke up, including the teenage kids and
it was all positive. One lady said that
she wished all the scissors were equivalent since she was making the blankets
and not all of them worked. I said that
projects have frequent issues but we have to make it work, since most problems are
insignificant compared to the issue that we are addressing. We took a group picture and then it was time
to leave. Since everything was cleaned
up, I joined everyone on the bus back to ‘Daley
Plaza’. I met up with the Chicago
Cares staff and other leaders as we celebrated the successful conclusion of yet another Serve-A-Thon.
No comments:
Post a Comment