Serve-A-Thon 2016

Location: Lorraine Hansberry Senior Apartments

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2016; 7:45 am-2:30 pm

It was that time and once again I had been approached to be a "Primary Leader".  I had filled out a survey and as with any other year, had only requested “Senior Sites”.  I was allocated this location, to which I had never been to, and Alisa had signed up as my leader.  This would be our 3^rd Serve-A-Thon together in the last 4 years.  Katie, who was new at Chicago Cares, would be our staff contact and she sent me some details, which included the tasks.  Besides making Breakfast and playing Bingo, we would also be making “Fleece Pillows”.  I attended a Chicago Cares “Volunteer Management Social’ in May and the main objective was to identify people’s leadership style and also go over scenarios that may come up with volunteers.  Of the 10 questions that were asked, based on my results, I tested as being 93% in the “Analytical” category, the highest of everyone there in any particular group – other categories were “Dominant”, “Supportive” and “Inspiring”.  As I spoke about my style, I mentioned to them that as an “Analytical person”, I expected precise instructions for execution.

We would be making one of these

I was called for an on-site training on June 8 and I just saw my name on the email.  Alisa asked if she should come and I was told that I could cover for her. The location was way out west in the neighborhood of Austin and it took me some time to get there.  I arrived to see that Katie was present, but that was it.  There was no site rep - something which took her aback as well – and so there was absolutely nothing that I learned that day.  I did know that I definitely needed another leader besides Alisa if we were doing 2 tasks.  I asked Katie questions like how many residents and if they were informed that unlike the regular breakfast that starts at 10 am on Chicago Cares Saturday’s, this one was at noon.  I also sent a note to Maura at Chicago Cares, saying that I had some concerns. We talked the next day, where she agreed to address most of them.  In closing I said that we should treat this with equal respect as we would any of the other school projects and so the same amount of attention was required for this project.  There's me being analytical!

To their credit, Chicago Cares did send me lot of material and addressed all of my concerns, along with providing me with another leader, Hillarie.  The day before the event, I spoke with both of my leaders and also picked up a “Walkie-talkie radio” from ‘Daley Plaza’, this being the primary mode of communication with the “Dispatch center” the next day.  I studied all of my materials that night and was ready to go.  I took a train to the site and reached at 7:45 am, which was our expected arrival time.  I learned from the security guard that the site rep wasn’t there, this being a Saturday.  So much for the site rep speech, which is supposed to be an integral part of this program.  I checked in with Dispatch using the radio, which was blowing up with others on the same channel. After that I surveyed the boxes which Chicago Cares had dropped off and there were a lot of those.

All of our supplies

Alisa arrived soon followed by Hillarie.  Also present were 2 Chicago Cares staff members – Chelsea and Josh.  They were just stopping by with a supply van in case we needed anything and then they would be on their way to another location.  Good thing they were here since we were missing scissors and tape measure to cut the fleece rolls. I went over the specifics with Alisa and Hillarie and we decided that Alisa would do the Breakfast while Hillarie would be in charge of the Pillows.  My job would be to ensure that all the volunteers were having a good time and were engaged.  Besides that, I would also coordinate the Bingo and decorations.  Speaking of Bingo, we had a lot of prizes - over 80 individual pieces.  I mentioned that we should not display all of them, but Hillarie said that we should since they love those here.  I went and put up some signs welcoming volunteers and also directions to the restrooms.  Alisa and I decided to have breakfast at 11:15 am instead of noon, and so I went and told the security guard to make that announcement.  After that there was nothing much to do but wait, during which I called dispatch and was told that 14 volunteers were headed to my site.

The volunteers arrived and I assembled everyone for introductions.  It was all women, except 2 young boys, who were with their mom’s.  Also in the group were Hillarie’s mom and her roommate.  I talked about the neighborhood of Austin and how it was also the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway.  I talked about the senior residence and also about food insecurity for low-income communities, and how Chicago Cares is helping.  I then asked Alisa and Hillarie to pitch their individual projects and they recruited people.  Alisa went to the kitchen and they started on the breakfast comprising of eggs, biscuits, sausages, fruit salad etc.  Hillarie and a few others settled down on the floor in a corner where we had dragged the fleece rolls.

The room was extremely cold because of the air conditioning and we had brought that up several times with the site staff.  We couldn’t raise the temperature and so just opened the windows since it was warm outside.  I asked the 2 young boys and a few others to help with decorations and they started putting up streamers, table cloths and what looked like centerpieces.  We didn’t have enough of either, though I had seen some in the supply closet and pulled them out.  People always enjoy this decoration task and these guys did it with a lot of enthusiasm.  Once they were done, I got them rolling up the plastic cutlery in a paper napkin – again borrowing some from the supply cabinet.  In the kitchen the cooking was underway, though the biggest challenge was thawing the Orange juice, which had been frozen solid since it had been stored in the freezer.  But besides that, it looked like the food would be done on time.  The fleece pillow group was making good progress as well and had even stuffed a few pillows to see how it would look, in each of the 2 colors – blue and grey.

The residents had started coming in and I welcomed a gentleman.  I sat him down and chatted with him, explaining how today would be different than usual.  Around 11:15 am, Alisa told me that we could start serving and so I went to recruit people who had assembled outside the building.  I even invited the lady who had driven the volunteer bus to join us.  Not many came in initially, but as we commenced serving, they started filtering in.  I was also walking about getting their signature on a list, something that is required by the facility.  I went and delivered a plate to the security guard and the janitor who had helped us earlier.  Two ladies were in charge of plating and they were making plates rapidly.  I had assigned the boys the task of pouring the now defrosted juice, and they were walking about politely asking everyone if they wanted a glass. Alisa asked how long they should keep cooking and I said a little bit more.  While the room had filled up significantly, I said that some folks may be under the impression that we start at noon and so may be coming later.

I set up the Bingo table and announced the rules, which were that there would be 3 winners per board and you could only win once, after which you have to give your prize away.  Once everyone in the room had a prize, they could win again.  The gentleman who had been the first to arrive mentioned that he did not know how to play.  I showed him the Bingo card, which had red sliding windows to cover the called numbers and it was against a white background.  I mentioned that the first thing he had to do was open the sliders and make all numbers “white”, to which he responded, “typical”; causing both of us to laugh.  I was pleased to see that one of the boys sat down with him and start interacting.

We started the game with 2 volunteers on the Bingo station.  One of the resident ladies won soon and picked up a prize.  Looking at the number of prizes that we had, this would be a long day for sure.  At one stage, a lady who had been served breakfast called me and said that her sausage was cold in the center.  I apologized and took it back to the kitchen, saying that we had food being returned!  One lady came in and said that she couldn’t stay since she had a friend over and the guard wouldn’t let outsiders in.  I asked her to come with me and made 2 plates for her to take away so that she could share with her friend; at which she was extremely pleased.  One lady had her infant grandson with her and while he was initially asleep in a stroller, he woke up a bit later, allowing me to play with him.  The game was progressing slowly and the lady who had won first, kept winning over and over.  At one stage she got upset that she had to keep giving her prize away.  A gentleman next to her said it wasn’t fair that someone was benefiting from their “hard work”.  I said that this was a game of chance and how was that hard work.  He said that they had to concentrate.  “Touché”, I said.

The Pillow case group was working with intent and wasn’t even taking breaks for lunch.  In the meanwhile, one of the volunteers was cleaning the kitchen.  Hillarie had told me about her, especially her penchant for cleaning.  I went over to chat and found her to be a delightful lady.  Bingo was really taking a lot of time and was being called by a volunteer who said that she was right at home calling a long game loudly.  She said that she was Italian and so was used to yelling!  I increased the number of winners per card to 6 and later to 10 and was pleased when we finally - after over an hour - had everyone with a prize, so that we could finally have repeat winners.  We were mistaken if we thought that it would diffuse the tension, since 2 ladies got into an argument, where one claimed that the other had picked up a prize without even winning.  I feared that they would come to blows since their tempers were running wild.  The accuser said “Why would you want to argue over something from a dollar store”, which when you think about it can work against her argument as well!

Everyone wanted these pillows

After what seemed like an eternity, we had finally given away all prizes.  At one stage I had even asked if the residents wanted to stop and they had of course said no.  Now the problem was that everyone wanted pillows, and they had a specific request in terms of color and size.  I announced that everyone would get just one pillow and it would be the first available.  We did not have the resources to keep making them and it was almost 2 pm, meaning that we had to close soon.  We gave away the last of the pillows and residents had now started leaving. A lady who was in a wheelchair had told Alisa that she wanted to thank us and gave a short speech on how much she as well as the others had appreciated us coming today, cooking, playing bingo and showing them all a good time.  It was a nice gesture on her part.

We cleaned up rapidly and most things were stuffed in the closet.  Even though the table cloth looked clean, I told them that we couldn’t reuse it and so had to throw it away.  I gathered everyone for reflection and asked them what went right, opportunities for improvements etc.  The only feedback was that some of the tools for fleece pillows weren’t necessarily the right ones and that they needed bigger scissors.  Plus, they said that maybe we should do some activity that residents could participate in, like them making some of these pillows.  I said that I had always viewed this activity as something similar to a painting project at other sites, where we do something for them rather than with them as in a regular project.

Alisa and Hillarie pitched the projects that they lead, as did I, mentioning “Job Coaching at ODS” and “Lakeview Senior’s Pet Therapy”.  I had taken down all the signs except the one with Chicago Cares "Missions" and I pointed that out to them.  Finally, I said that while I appreciated everyone, I was particularly thankful to the 2 young boys and encouraged their moms to bring them for some other projects.  They had really done a terrific job.  We all pilled on the bus – including Alisa’s bike, which was difficult to get in – and rode to the party at ‘Daley Plaza’.  We took a group picture and then after returning my radio, the only thing left was to go and grab a beer and some food.  While most of the volunteers had eaten with the residents, I had not had a chance.  I saw some of the other groups slowly come in, but I was tired to wait and socialize.  I saw that many sites had over 130 volunteers.  But I would take my 14 any day over them.