5 posts tagged “volunteer”
Write a blog entry describing your experiences at a project - or even your thoughts about volunteering. What have you noticed about working in Boston, or what are you looking forward to this summer? The blog is a wonderful way to catch up on the stories of our active members and to see what your comrades are doing in the service field.
If your entry is posted in this blog, you will be able to choose one of the fabulous prizes pictured here.
Please send your submissions to Kellyn Shoecraft.
I only joined Boston Cares this past November, and already I have found it to have become such a huge part of my life. During the winter I mainly stuck to the indoor volunteer projects (i.e. sorting baby items at Room to Grow, sorting food at the Greater Boston Food Bank, Knitting for the Greater Good, etc), so as soon as it got warm out, I was very excited to sign up for some outdoor projects! One of the projects I signed up for was the Earth Day Celebration at the Stone Zoo. I had not been to the Stone Zoo since I was in grade school, so I was very interested in going back as an adult- this time to help out!
I arrived at the Stone Zoo, which was very quick & easy to get to by car from , and met up with my group at the. After getting a bright orange T-shirt to wear for the day, the friendly staff of their Special Events team explained our duties to us and allowed us each to choose what we wanted to help out in for the day. Just a few of their many Earth Day celebration projects were: Recycle Relays, catching & inspecting insects and organisms from the pond, Arts & Crafts- making origami frogs & coloring bags, and Planting (sunflower) Seeds. Along with a few other Boston Cares members, I chose the Arts & Crafts table.
For the first half of the day, I sat at the Arts & Crafts table teaching kids, who were interested, how to make origami frogs. I had never made an origami frog before, so I was thankful that the directions were printed on the paper we were using, but by the end I was very good at making them! Some of the younger children had a bit of trouble folding the paper, but with a little assistance they had a huge smile on their face when it was completed! One child even taught me how to make a bigger one, using different folds.
After lunch, which was graciously provided by the Stone Zoo for the volunteers & was delicious, I was asked to help with the Seed Planting at the table beside the Arts & Crafts. The children lined up to plant sunflower seeds! Assisting in planting seeds was a very busy, but certainly very fun task. The two parts to the Seed Planting table were: coloring in a fun animal-printed bag with the crayons provided, then lining up to get a (biodegradable) cup to then put dirt & sunflower seeds in. Coloring with the children
was great fun- listening to their stories of what colors they were using to decorate each animal, stories of their family, and stories of their other hobbies. After coloring for a while, I moved over to the actual planting section. It was cute seeing not only the very little children excited to put dirt and seeds in a cup to later watch grow, but also a few older kids lining up! Some of the littler children needed help reaching in the dirt bin, or holding the shovel, but none of them had any trouble throwing the seeds in their cup! I quickly learned that I needed to place only a few seeds in my hand for the kids to take & place in their cup, or handfuls would be put in! It was great hearing their excitement to take the cups home to watch & grow- clearly a great way to encourage the younger generations to keep the Earth green!
The whole day at the Stone Zoo was fantastic- it was beautiful weather, people and families of all walks of life were there to celebrate Earth Day & enjoy the festivities, and everyone really did their part to help out to make it a successful day! The children all seemed to enjoy themselves & hopefully most of the sunflower seeds are growing by now!
~Molly Turner
Thursday, November 10, 2006
New Orleans, Louisiana
Well, I made it to New Orleans! Our hosts, HandsOn New Orleans (a partner organization of Boston Cares), are great. They have energy and they are practical. After we arrived, we received a great orientation and safety lecture, since as you can imagine, there is mold and stuff to be concerned about as well as falling debris.
I found my team leader for the day, whose name was Jess. She's a part of the AmeriCorps group that is traveling and doing community service. After they leave next week, her group will continue onto , where they will help with the Katrina rebuilding there. I got my Tyvek, which is that suit that you usually see haz-mat workers wear only this one is white. I also got my respirator mask and goggles and gloves. Then it was decided since we were doing a "last gut" which required primarily nail removal, that carpenter's face would be fine and so I returned my respirator.
A "last gut" is the finally stage of gutting a house. Once this is done, rebuilding work can begin. The people whose homes are receiving this work from HandsOn New Orleans volunteers contacted the office and requested the help. Usually once the request is received, volunteers go to the property and scout it out. If it poses too much of a risk (unstable floors for example) , then they cannot work on the house and refer them to someone who can.
The house that we went to was on . We proceeded to remove nails, nails and more nails with hammers. I don't think I have ever interacted with that many nails in my whole life. After
the nails were removed, we swept up the nails and other debris that was
left in the house. The debris was left on the curb side grass by the
side of the house. Jess informed us that debris removal is a part of
the garbage pickup around here. They come by and pick it up daily.
Jess
was a great team leader and guide. She was informative and had energy.
She clearly loved the fact that she was helping people in the best way
that she could. She drove us around the neighborhood where we completed
our morning's work and showed us the houses, some of which had
extensive damage. One enduring sight for the day was the FEMA trailers.
They were in the yards of people's houses or in FEMA trailer parks.
As
we made our way to the now infamous Ninth Ward, we saw that the houses
had spray paint on them. We were told that these markings, which have
words and/or numbers in either a cross 
or
an "X" represented the teams that swept the properties after the
disaster. The upper left quadrant represented the team that went in to
do the sweep. The lower left represented the number of dead that they
found. The lower right represented the number that were found alive.
The upper right represented where they were found. After receiving this
information, the markings took on a whole new grim meaning for me since
we had prior to her explanation, passed a number of places where I saw
totals of anywhere between 1-4 in that lower left quadrant that tallies
the dead bodies found. The number dead will also include pets, which
are also noted in spray paint. The MSPCA did quite a few sweeps. We
were also told that earlier in the summer, a HandsOn team was doing a
"first gut"-taking down the wall and ceiling-and they found an older
woman under her sink that the sweep teams clearly did not find. There
are so many houses to check, but so few resources at hand.
We
drove into the Ninth Ward. It was very quiet, except for some green
industry crews doing branch removal and some
traffic. There is no
electricity here so no one in their right mind
(or left mind for that matter) comes here at night. In fact, where
there would usually be stop lights, there are stop signs and people are
trusted to remember the rules of the road. There are also no gas
stations so if you are going over there and you don't plan ahead, you
are out of luck. As we drove around, it was sobering to see that where
what looked like plots of open land were places where houses once
stood. The Ninth Ward was densely populated-this you can tell from how
the remaining structures and traces of the structures are situated.
Jess showed us the now repaired levees and indicated about where they
broke. We then took a tour of the more affluent parts of the city that
suffered more hurricane damage than flooding. All around you could see
contractors working, but if you visited these areas only you would have
never known Katrina had taken place.
~Emma Lathan, Boston Cares member since 1998
Back Bay/South End
Have you ever gone to a place and realized that it just feels right? That something in the atmosphere makes you feel good? That is the feeling that I get whenever I volunteer at the Boston Living Center. The BLC is exactly what its name claims - a center for living.
The BLC is
near Back Bay station, but it is tucked away, almost hidden on a side
street so that a passerby might not even notice that it's there. The
BLC stands to serve the HIV/AIDS community. AIDS has now been in the
United States for more than a 25 years. The disease is still widespread
within our country, and much more so internationally, affecting people
from all walks of life. With advancements in drug therapies people are
living longer and healthier lives as HIV positive individuals. But what
about their quality of life? There is a lot of focus on drug therapy,
and of course, proper medication is what allows for people inflicted
with the disease to live. Treatment for the quality of life is not
typically a part of Western medicine. The disease is something that the
individuals have, but it is not who they are, and treatment is all the
more powerful and comprehensive when it involves the the individual
beyond the disease.
That is why places like the BLC are so important. They are here for the treatment and well-being of the people,
not just for the treatment of the disease. The mission of the BLC is to
create a community where people with HIV/AIDS can feel safe and
welcome, where they can receive nutritious meals, a haircut, a massage,
counseling, job training, computer education, and medication. It is a
place to make friends, to hang out, and to be yourself. How can you not
feel good when you go to the BLC? The positive ways that the Living
Center affects its members is clear when you visit, and it is
contagious. If you have not been there, please read the comments below
written by BLC members (from the BLC website):
- Coming to the Boston Living Center and seeing the strength, courage and happiness that so many of the members here exude helps me to find the strength, courage and happiness within myself."
- "The
Boston Living Center has proven to be a great source of comfort and
strength to me. It is one of the few places I can go where I
know I will not be judged, where I know that I am appreciated and
welcomed for simply being a fellow human being.
- "My life has never been better or more productive and I owe a lot to the Boston Living Center for their help in my process"
To
help support the BLC's efforts, Boston Cares has recently posted the
lunch time meal service opportunities on the calendar. Volunteer work
is critical for the success of the BLC. Without volunteers, the meals
program costs substantially more money to run, and money is a critical
resource for every nonprofit. If you have not yet served at the Living
Center - I highly recommend that you do. There is a lot of living going
on behind their doors, and everyone is welcome to be a part of it.
(Top Picture: BLC Pharmacy; Bottom Picture: Volunteers serving lunch)
Dorchester
An hour before the party began, presents were still being wrapped, a crowd was gathering outside, and Santa was MIA. A sense of excitement and anticipation permeated the building.
The
Boston Cares volunteers moved around like busy bees as the party
began—ensuring that the present room was stocked and ready to go,
passing out snacks to all the children as they watched a holiday movie,
popping popcorn fervently when it was discovered the popcorn machine
did not work.
When the presents came out, Boston Cares was ready. In a quick decision, one volunteer suggested bringing all the presents upstairs, and announced the childrens’ names on a microphone, while other volunteers passed out gifts, and ensured each child received a present.
One eight-year old girl decided she wanted to help the Boston Cares volunteers clean-up while she waited to receive her gift. Asking
for a broom, she scampered around on the floor, picking up popcorn
remnants and juice boxes with an energy that was contagious.
The Boston Cares volunteers, with their positive attitudes and flexibility, helped make this event a success.
~Lynn Weisel, Boston Cares staff member
