My new thing for the day was pretty simple, incomplete, but can lead to something wonderful and fulfilling. I went into the Country Villa Health Services (CVHS) and inquired about volunteering. CVHS is a retirement home that I pass practically every day that I walk to the Gym or Starbucks.
Just a couple of weeks ago I was able to have a fantastic experience with my great friend Rhonda (who’s blog you can read here). On Christmas we went to Pasadena and helped with the massive effort to feed the homeless with the Union Station Foundation. It was truly a humbling and yet thrilling experience.
Let me tell you, if you haven’t done this click the link and do a little volunteer. It was AWESOME. They were a completely organized effort and you definitely feel that your time is wisely used. Rhonda and I were the greeters. Our job was to be the first line of welcome for the people in our lines. Explicitly we were to touch them (if they felt comfortable with that) look them in the eye and wish them a Merry Christmas. We were to Humanize their experience. Of course with Rhonda being who she is and me being who I am we took this to a whole new level. We had the line singing Christmas Carols. We were entertaining the kids. We had everyone passing back high fives. We turned this into a holiday party in the line.
The best thing was all of the smiles that were flashed throughout the day and all of the people from other lines saying they wanted to be where we were or other workers say that they really enjoyed the spirit we engendered. This was such a rewarding experience that I can’t let Christmas be the only time that I spread that kind of cheer and Joy.
Now let me explain a couple of things. First off My family is NOT a volunteering family. When I told my Grandmother that I was volunteering for the Obama Campaign it took a little while for it to sink in.
Me: I’m volunteering for the Main California Office for Obama.
Grandma: How much are you getting paid?,
Me: I’m volunteering.
Grandma: How much does that pay?
Me: Volunteering means that you don’t get paid.
Grandma: You working for free?
Me: Yeah, its for a good cause. I want Obama to be the President.
Grandma: He got all that money, you should tell them to pay you.
Me: Okay.
I love my Grandma but as you can see this isn’t in the blood stream of my family. She loves talking about the civil rights movement but when I asked her recently if she had ever marched and I got a very much affirmed NO. I’m reminded of this clip from the Boondocks:
Needless to say, I’ve worked my life to transcend my beginnings. So now that I’ve gotten the taste of volunteering I want to spread that cheer around. I’ve walked passed the CVHS for months now and today I went in and actually spoke with someone. Okay, it was the weekend so I didn’t get ALL the info that I needed but I broke my own personal fear barrier. I’ll be back in during the week and meet with the director and actually start volunteering on probably a monthly basis. YAY. 2010 Bitches!
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