I smell like potatoes!

So for the third day at Tri-City volunteer we had bagged potatoes, did a little mopping and also cleaned the potatoe bagging station. Once we got there they had us instantly go to the potatoe bagging station, and start bagging them. We had seen hundreds of small little spuds in this huge!, bin right behind us. Now getting the potatoes weren't hard, it was actually opnening the darn bag because it would stick to your hands and couldn't find the dang seems to open it. It was a pain in the butt... After countless barrages of people coming and getting the bags from us it felt as if it never was going to end! We had worked as if it felt for hours when only it was 1. Finally when you thought it was going to end it cam right back at you...

After it got closer to closing time because the volunteer center closes around 5 or so. I went to mop the back room back towards the front near the freezer area. It was a dirty, filthy floor.. All in all it was a good learning experience. We had fun today because we just chatted and it was easy bagging potatoes ahaha... I can't wait for next time. :)

Volunteer Stuff Entry #3

Work Time: 1 hour
(However, we were at Irvington for about 3 hours)

Commentary
Amanda: This was a while back, but we kept it for this post. We didn't think we were going to garden at all, but it was very amazing when we actually did. I felt a bit disgusted when I figured out that wasn't really dirt we were scooping up, but it was pretty funny when we figured it out.

Michael:

Commentary
Amanda: I apologize for the change in scenery. My room wasn't the ideal filming location. Anyways, I also apologize for laughing so much. Michael was being goofy behind the camera.

Michael: Sorry for any offensive language, this is me talking about the time me and Amanda went to a FIERCE meeting at Irvington and did some unexpected gardening.

EDIT: Video Hosting Problems

It's getting old

For my third time again at The Tri-City Volunteers it was really REALLY boring. I got there, signed in, got a vest and tag, and put on latex gloves. I was tired, lazy, totally out of it, and was getting ready to put bread in bags. I'd say the best part of volunteering that day was just bagging bread with our long lost student, Javier Saavedra. We were bread bagging buddies for the whole hour and a half until we had to leave. We were both just as tired as the other. There was about four other kids volunteering and none of them went to Washington so the place was very quite. After all the bagging me and Javier went to the back room and got a cup a water. It was quit refreshing, even though we only bagged bread.

Professional Gardener

Since I was gone and or busy most of Spring break, I was unable to meet up with Kate and Britney and work with the LaRiviere's. Instead, I found a different opportunity to do some community service with a few of my friends. I was asked if I wanted to help a small group of people go do some yard work for some older people that lived at the Niles Canyon Mobile Estates. It is a community of mobile homes and the majority of the home owners older than 50. I do not know how my friend's mom, Kathy, was informed about this, but her daughter Kelia was the one who asked me if I would be available. So, we would be helping four homes/people with yard work because they are unable to do it themselves. We arrived at around 8:45 in the morning on Saturday and then left around 2:00 in the afternoon. At each house we mainly pulled weeds out of the grass, dirt, rock, etc. It didn't seem like it was going to be too much work, but after a few hours in the sun it became pretty tough work. At the first house we had filled three and half garbage full of weeds and I was amazed that we had pulled that many. I was glad that I went with some hard working people, because from past experiences I have witnessed how easy it is for people to slack off when they are doing service work. None of us complained and we were doing really good. Unfortunately I think we spent too much time at the first two homes because we started to run out of time at the last two. To make matters worse, the final two homes contained the most weeds(go figure). As a result we had to go on overdrive and we got as much weeds out as possible instead of trying to be meticulous and getting every one that we could find. At one of the homes, we were working when one the neighbors came out of their home and asked us, “How much do you guys charge?”
Kathy then told her, “Oh, we're not doing this for money. Rather, we're just trying to give back to our community by doing some yard work for the elderly.”
“Wow that is very nice of you, and you're all doing a very good job too.”
It felt really good that we were appreciated, not only by the people who lived where we were weeding, but also that the neighbors noticed too. I think that when we all heard what the woman had said it gave us more drive to do a good job. At the end of the day I asked Kathy if she could provide me with a quote and she told me:
“It is awesome to have a group of hard working young men and women volunteer in order to help those in need. Though many do not know it, there are always opportunities for you to help your community. Never forget that the little things sometimes make the biggest impact in someone else's life.”

Reaching for Equity Journal Entry #2

For the second volunteer opportunity, I went to the fire station again. I went with another three of my fellow fire explorers. We got into our Fremont Fire vehicle, and we started to drive around the city. We were running errands for the firefighters around the city. That day we had a couple of things to do. The first thing we had to do was pick up oxygen bottles and go to a certain fire station and to fill them up. Firefighters use these bottles on the patients they get called out for during medical calls. We also had to fill up SCBA (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) bottles. These are the bottles that firefighters wear on their back when they go into a fire. We finished the day with getting some lunch, and then returning back home.


It is pretty fun, driving in a huge v12 truck with lights on our roof. People notice, and see that we are pretty young. Even though we are so young, (the explorers) if you see us driving around the city you will still think we are firefighters. We have to act very mature, since we are reflecting the Fremont Fire Department. There is a time for joking around with our friends, but when driving and in view of the public is definitely not the time. At first I thought that we weren't really doing any "volunteering", since I thought that volunteering was helping the homeless, or the less fortunate. We were just filling up bottles and running errands. Then I thought, these bottles are being used to help save peoples lives, so maybe I am making a difference, and rather than the firefighters doing it themselves, which could be that one time they need to save some one's life, and they are busy.

Me and Leo's picture from the 2nd blog post!

Reaching for Equity Post 2

Writing the second entry for the project in very late. This is mostly due to the fact that I was suppose to go volunteer with Edwin but on that day someone couldn't go in for work at the last minute so I couldn't go. So I got and extension and I went with Michael and Amanda to FIERCE. There we fixed up American High by pulling out some weeds and cutting the grass. Unfortunately the weed wacker was broken so we had to use the hoe and pickaxes to cut the grass down. This turned out to be quite a disaster because most of the time we were just turning the dirt over which wasn't doing much. We then layed down some cardboard and covered it with with dirt. We then went and pulled out what vegetables that were ripe in the garden. Overall it was a fun experience and I got to do something different than what I did before.