This year I chose Love and Care Ministries for my volunteer project. I went into this with an open mind hoping to bless other people and learn something new about myself. I called Mick and set up my week and he was very nice and ready to put me to work. The first half of the week I worked in the clothing area sorting through the hundreds of bags of clothes donated and hanging them up to prepare them for the store. I have to say I was less than impressed with what some people choose to donate. I’m almost positive one of the bags I opened up was somebodies dirty laundry that had been sitting in a swampy basement for years. Quite disgusting. If anything this makes me want to shout out a PSA to everybody that has or will in the future donate clothing and such. DON’T DONATE YOUR GARBAGE!! Seriously….. It may be no big deal for you to throw some old, crappy, unwanted stuff in a garbage bag and consider it a donation but remember there are actual humans that have to sort through your nasty stuff that you so generously threw out. Be considerate! If you are wanting to help your community do it in a manner that you would want to accept it if it was given to you. End Rant. After a couple days in the clothing area I asked to move somewhere else. When you volunteer at places like this sometimes the other people in there “volunteering” along side you are actually the homeless themselves or people serving community service who don’t really want to be there. Some of the content of the conversations took on a vulgar tone and even I began to get offended which takes a lot. Mick was very understanding and moved me to the food pantry for the rest of the week. At the food pantry I met Don. He’s an older man that is retired and has been volunteering there for the last 3 years. He was a really great man and it was cool to see how he interacted with the homeless people. At the food pantry you actually get one on one face time with the homeless. Some of them are in and out with no appreciation for what they are getting. Some of them are very kind, sweet and appreciative of the tiny food kit they are given. Some are lonely and talk your ear off. Overall, I really enjoyed the food pantry and would love to go back to help sometime. I was impressed by how well the whole system is ran and how willing these people are to give so much of themselves to help other people, whether they are down on their luck or chose that lifestyle.
After my week of service I enjoyed my week of vacation that was full of school shopping, my birthday, my (almost) father in law cutting off two fingers with a table saw, lots of snocone eating and a bbq and s’mores celebration of our last day of summer. I’m glad to be back at work and my kids to be back at school. Thanks Kris and the board for another great opportunity.