Location: UIC Student Center
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2016; 10:30 am-2:00 pm
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| Another "Thanksgiving" at 'UIC' |
After attending 3 years in a row, I had missed the event
last year owing to my travels, but I was on the lookout for this and signed up
as soon as it opened up. I was looking
forward to seeing everyone again, not least Olivia. We got an email with the project description
and the only thing that we were making was a “Thanksgiving Wreath”. As
usual it was cold – it always is when I’m going for this one – and as usual, I
got lost after getting off the “Pink Line”. I arrived at the hall and it was busy with people setting up for the event. I
found the MAW table and saw that another volunteer was already there, a young
man named Jake. He showed me the bag
that MAW had dropped off and all it had was the “Giveaway’s” for the kids. I
said that there should be another bag with the activity supplies, as well as a
tablecloth – there is always a tablecloth.
I asked one of the organizers and after looking around for a bit, we
located the bag, just as 2 of our fellow volunteers – Kristin and Marissa –
arrived.
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| What we were making |
As we set up the table, I told Jake and Kristin about the
project – Marissa had done it last year – and how I look forward to it every
year. Just as I was telling them that,
Dr. Schmidt stopped by to say hello and I mentioned to her how I was hoping to
see Olivia. We were cutting out the
leaves on the paper templates that had been provided, and some of them were
quite complex. It would take the kids a
long time to trim; in fact it was taking me a long time as well, especially
maple leaves. Kids had started coming in
and we got Brodie, who I had seen before and his brother. Brodie is a nice kid who is very respectful, and
he was coloring his leaves thoughtfully. He had blue color on his lips, as did
his brother, and after some investigating I learnt that ‘Dunkin Donuts’ was here, inviting kids to decorate donuts and eat them. It seems like all the kids were choosing blue
coloring.
Finally I saw Olivia, who is now 5 years old. She is in Kindergarten and has 2 of her
front teeth missing. I showed her a
picture of herself from 4years ago and talked to her mom about how she has
grown up. I also saw several other kids
that I know, including Evelyn and Stephen – the most well-dressed gentleman at
this event each year. Everyone was either
coloring leaves for a wreath or coloring a Turkey, which was our other
activity. There was a dance troupe from “Joffrey” and they performed a routine,
following which they asked all the parents and kids to join them on the floor. Everyone did so – including Dr. Schmidt – and
for the next several minutes there was a lot of fun as they were taught steps
and eventually led into a dance.
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| It was a party |
The lunch was being served and so a huge line formed, also
meaning that we were less busy. It
allowed us to chat, cut more leaves or in my case, walk around to see other
groups. I saw the usual suspects and
most were doing similar activities as previous years. We took turns to get lunch, since kids were
still coming over. One kid in particular
bonded with Jake since the kid was wearing a “Batman” shirt and Jake was asking him questions on “Superheroes”. We were trying to give away the gift packs,
but there were a lot of them. Finally, I
told Jake to just take the box and leave it at the entrance for people to pick
up on their way out. We cleaned up quite
fast and left at 2 pm, another successful year in the books. I was already looking forward to next year
and seeing Olivia again.
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