C-Dart? No Seed Art!

On Friday, May 27th, I along w/... yeah pretty much all my friends worked the Eco-Faire! We had thee coolest booths there, Seed Art and Paper Boat Racing w/ a pool and errthing. I worked the 4th, 5th and 6th period shifts with Casey Case and Leo. I showed up at 4th and was appointed lurer (as in I lure people I don't know if that's a word or not but if it isn't it is now my friend), trying to get people to come over and be Picassos with seeds. My cowbell and wonderful acting of "Whoa mind blooown, what is this? Seed art? Looks sick, join me stranger" worked and many people came over . There was a situation though where some freshmen were making a mess then refused to take their art with them. The little boy handed me his paper like "Here you go, its a present" and I was like "Nair my brethren, that's all yours you worked hard on it. How about you give it to your mom, she'd Totes McGotes enjoy it" then he got all offended "Okay I don't even have a mom so you just made me feel horrible thanks now you have to take it" but as I recall I had seen him with a woman who looked like a female 40 year old version of him a couple days ago in the parking lot afterschool so I was taken aback. I put my sassy nature aside and took his art so he'd go away and I could proceed to have a delightful afternoon. I occassionally supervised the paper boat racing but some people didn't know how to make boats... and I didn't either... so yeah they raced their attempts at boats and I gave a ticket to the winner. When things got slow, I walked over to mon petit chou Vivian's booth about oil spills and helped her demonstrate and urge people that the polymer was not candy! The wind was flowing and whatnot and I loved it until it started knocking over the tri-folds (and nearly our big tin of seeds!) I can't even say how much tape I used. Then there'd be lapses of uncomfortable warmth but tis all well because there were puhlenty of snow cones provided (can I get a woot woot). Leadership even passed out pizza to everyone working and that was much appreciated since I worked lunch. There were a lot of other good and creative booths that I enjoyed visiting also and overall I had a good time with good people, good food, and good music too showing people to reconsider just recycling their paper and to make art and boats instead! Don't judge me by my run on sentences of enthusiasm.

One persons old books, is Josh and Genesis' Labor

For the extra credit post Genesis and I went to our favorite community service place ever! We went to the Tri City Valley community service place. But instead of just going immediately to the food pantry, we went to the thrift store. Both Genesis and I were tired of working in the food pantry, packing potatoes, and sweeping the huge floor. So we just thought it would be a good idea to check out the thrift store to see if there was anything we could do. The lady who was running it was really nice, so she let us organize the blankets, books, and shoes. Genesis and I started folding blankets, then we went to the books. There had to be at least 300 books that needed to be organized on the shelfs. So we started to get to work. The books took forever, but once we were done we felt good that we helped out. It was a very different experience from the food pantry. It was a good change from doing the same thing, and it got us to feel like we were helping poorer people. They had couches in the thrift store that were only 35 dollars and they were actually pretty good looking couches. After we were done we went into the food pantry to see Patricia... but we couldn't find her. So we went to the front and there she was washing windows. So at that point Genesis and I knew we had made the right choice by going to the thrift store right away indtead of the food pantry.

Rain, Rain, Go Away Already!

Today was the first year of the ECT and IBEW safety fair in Dublin. I went along with some friends from water polo and we did a lot of community service. Overall, we did about 10 hours. It was raining all morning and the most dangerest part of the safety fair was getting there. I could barely see anything in front of me on the road because it was pouring so badly. When we got there we went inside a giant building and talked with the director of the fair. We then started to set up easy ups for all the booths that would be there. One the booths were set up it was cool looking at them. There was a CPR booth with the plastic dummies set up, then there was a policeman booth, and a fireman booth. For our service we handed out the food that the firemen were cooking. We had to serve hot links, hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken dogs... which were really gross. It was about noon when people started swarming us for food, even thjough the food wasn't ready yet from the fire fighters. Once some food was finally done, the people waiting grabbed and took most of the food. Which meant that other people waiting had to wait even longer for food. Everyone was standing in the rain, but it didn't matter because they were all there to learn about safety and other stuff. Most of the people working there and others who were there were really nice. Doing the safety fair was the best community service I've ever done. It allowed for people to know about safety, but it was also a good way to get out of doing community service at the Tri City place. I am glad that I went out and did this because it was a good way of helping out the community.

One Man's Trash Is Genesis and Josh's Treasure!

For my fourth post, I went to (surprise) the Tri-City Volunteers with (surprise) Josh Christy. This time HOWEVER we tryed something new. For the last three posts, we've been going in and working at the Community Pantry but this time we charged into the Treasure Trove thrift store next door. I, personally, looo(that's right three o's)ve thrift stores and was happy when the woman said she always has things to do and would love some help. At first she brought up the restrooms and Josh and I weren't feeling it as she probably could tell from our faces because she then brought up that there's little things around the store we could do to make it look more organized. Josh and I straight up transformed the entire back of the store. First, we re-folded all the blankets, towels, etc. like pros. Right when we finished, this woman comes out the cuts like "excu me" and handles some towels just to put them back. Now I know how it must feel for the girls at the mall whenever people come and rifle things. Much respect to those women because this was only the first time and I was glaring. Anyways, then we went over to the bookcases and organized those. There were so many good books there! For only 50 cents! I was overwhelmed. But while we we're straightening them up and whatnot, this cute little elderly couple was looking through the books, you should've seen my face they so were gliffin' adorable. The man was like "how about these? you like these right?" and she was like "no, I don't like those" and he was like "well how do you know?" and she was like "because I do" and he was like "maybe you will". Imagine them saying these in cute loud voices because after all they are elderly and their audition is degenerating. Then he brought up some woman and she was like, "I like her but I don't like her sister!" It was wonderful. There was a really nice couch and Josh was like, "only $30! I love a bargain!" and then some woman was looking she wanted to buy it and he was hurtin. After, we organized the shoes and just made the thrift store look like some high end boutique. We work wonders. Like I said, thrift stores and me are like this *imagine my fingers crossed really tight*, you can get a bunch of stuff for so little money! So I enjoyed working there for my last mandatory post. So go check out the Treasure Trove, and marvel at the professionally folded items, wonderfully organized books and VHS tapes, and gloriously arranged shoes. Don't thank us.. we do it for you *wink*.. for the community.

One Last Time

For my fourth and final mandatory post, I went back to the Tri-City Volunteer Center, but there seemed to be a surprising lack of volunteers this time. I went with Casey, Patricia, and Angela, and Brooke met us there. When we got there, things seemed really slow at first, and had almost nothing to do. Later, things got more hectic, but we did not do jobs that we would typically do when we volunteered there, like packaging potatoes. We started off cleaning a bit while Casey went to the front desk to help Stephanie. Brooke, Angela and I were busy sweeping and mopping the floors while Patricia was packing lunches for the homeless. After we finished with the sanitary work, we went to work preparing carts to go out to people's cars. Each cart required a loaf of bread, some dairy product, potatoes, lettuce, parsley, and a dessert. Once we received a card with a person's name on it, we would take turns bringing them out to help load the items in the trunks of the cars. Things began to slow down again, so I helped Patricia pack lunches, and was later joined by Angela. While we packed lunches, Patricia told us about the boy she was working with earlier, who was only thirteen years old and already involved in a gang. We continued packing the lunches until closing, but we saw that more people started coming at the last minute and we all decided to stay a little longer to help the workers out. We all kicked it into overdrive to get the orders out as fast as possible so everyone could go home. None of us minded the extra time at all and were actually willing to stay a little longer to help clean up to reduce the work required by the employees. After volunteering there so much, I feel like I would not mind going there to volunteer for extra hours, despite the admittedly boring jobs and sometimes tedious work.

Finally.

Last Thursday, I forgot to talk about my last day of volunteering, so this is making up for it. For my last day, me and the crew went back to Tri-City Volunteer (again). By this point, I was just like, "Whatever, it's the last day, why not just end it over here". So Leo, Patricia, and I got a ride from Casey, met up with Brooke at the parking lot, and went to work. We entered the building, signed in, put on our snazzy vests, and went straight to doing the job task we left off from the previous day. We began putting different foods into carts and baskets, and whenever a slip came from the office, we distributed the food to the people outside. Even though it was the second day doing this job, I felt used to it. We did this for 10 minutes, when Stephanie (the lady from my first day) came in and gave us new jobs. She wanted us to sweep (exciting!) and then mop the floor so the place would be clean. Patricia, Leo, and I went sweepin' on, while Brooke followed Stephanie to get mop things. While sweeping the dirty floor, the radio was blastin' and this one song that went, "JAM ON IT, JAM ON IT". And of course, Patricia was singing along to it, totally messing up the lyrics, when the guy who ran the place was like, "BONUS POINTS IF YOU KNOW WHO SINGS THIS!"...none of us knew, we aren't that old. Apparently some group called, "Newcleus" sang it, and yes, I'm listening to it right now while typing this. Well, we continued sweeping; I swept from the door, all the way almost to the thrift store room. While sweeping there, Brooke was having some technical difficulties (nah, she was just tired), and asked me to take over; and 5 minutes of doing it, it wiped me out too. Who knew that mopping was so tiring?! (I give props to the janitors). What was really messed up though, was that after I mopped a certain spot, some kid who was carrying eggs dropped one and it splattered all over the floor. "Gee thanks, man", I thought. I mopped up the spot and after doing it for a while, a kind volunteer that was working with us told me he would take over (GOD BLESS YOUR SOUL), and so I went back to distributing food. But after a while, there weren't any slips coming from the office, and I noticed that Leo and Patricia were doing another job; so I joined them in packing lunches which consisted of two sandwiches, a bag of crackers, a milk pouch, and a donut. We did for the remainder of the day; the clock striked 4:15 and we began to sign out, when a whole bunch of slips came coming through! We were about to leave, but turned back and thought, "We need to go back, they need help" and proceeded to distribute food until the last costumer was satisfied. The guy in charge thanked us for staying late and asked if we were returning; we were planning to, but unfortunately, we couldn't the next day. I felt kind of bad, but I remembered that we could always drop in. I thought that the last day was really productive; it ended on a good note that the "boss" wanted us to return. Even though I didn't find another organization to volunteer at, I'm used to working at that place and I don't mind the jobs they put us in; just as long as I'm enjoying it and giving back to the community.

Chill

Another day at Tri City Volunteer. But for some reason this one seemed different. It just seemed chill. Maybe it was because we knew what we were doing. Maybe it was because the knowledge of it being the last one soothed us through it. Whatever it was, it was better.

We started the day a little early and beat all the other high school kids we usually saw there. We put on our green vests like old pro's and walked out to the familiar potato smelling room. Without having to ask what to do we got to work bagging potatoes for a little while and calmly let the people standing around take over the bagging of the spuds. We walked over to the mops and began the necessary job of cleaning the floor. Without even realizing time had gone by we were told they were shutting down. Wow. That was fast.

This experience was so much better than all the rest and it makes me glad I volunteered. We passed the phase of being new and not knowing what to do, then we passed the stage of boredom, and finally moved on o doing hard work and feeling good about it. This is what volunteering should be.

Here we go again.

Due to a busy schedule (MVALs) and a bit off slacking off, this third post is really late (I'M SORRY MR. SPECKELS). So for my third day of volunteering, me and Patricia went to...you should guess by now. TRI-CITY VOLUNTEERS. Whatta surprise. I guess the reason why a lot of people go there (as you can tell) is because you can just show up, and they give you an automatic job; and because there are super easy tasks. So when we showed up there, we went straight to signing in and putting on our lovely neon vests. We saw Casey and Leo there when we were looking for tasks to do. When we saw that there wasn't really much to do, we decided to go to the thrift store; but some lady led us back to the food bank and made us pack potatoes. Patricia, Casey, and I started packing potatoes for about 10 minutes while Leo was doing something else. Once we were done with our bags, we went looking for more things to do since we were so bored, and another volunteer told us to put different kinds of foods in baskets/carts so we can distribute them to the needy. I thought, "Finally! Something different!". They have these little slips of paper they give to us naming the things that the person/family wants; we put them in the basket and give them to the person who's waiting outside. We put canned foods, vegetables, dessert, bread, etc. When I first gave a cart to a lady, it was nice to see her reaction of getting food. Doing this for a while, I noticed that a lot of people were picky about their food! There was big cake in one of the carts, so Patricia and I went and gave it to this one guy, but he refused! "Shoot, if he don't want it, I'll take it!", we said jokingly. We do this for the rest of the day, and I have to say, this was finally the job I was looking for: reaching out into the community. Today was accomplishing because I didn't have to pack things the whole time I was there; I actually GOT OUT and helped part of the community and got the satisfaction of helping others.

Even though it was a good experience today, I'm getting tired of going to the same place every time I volunteer. I hope to find another place, maybe a school or organization, that not only focuses on the homeless and the needy, but the whole community.

So I had this accidentally posted on my Animation Blog for Mr. Briano I just realized... also instead of waiting to see If it was posted here first I deleted it.. so bear with me as I attempt to rewrite this literary masterpiece I have just destroyed.

Joaquin, Bryan, and I have been working on this project for some weeks now and decided the reason we don't like it is that we are volunteering at a place which is not sufficient to our capabilities or even our attention, yet we still went there that fateful Tuesday even though that bitter nugget of knowledge was lodged between our molars of knowledge. Even though we hated the place we trudged on through the mucky swamps of boredom and dread. We lethargically slumped our unwilling bodies into the office and painfully signed our names on our ticket to hell. We had already worked 4 hours here and now it was time for another 2. We dragged our feet toward the brooms and continued our normal job of slave work just dreaming about that moment we got to sign our names at the end signifying we worked our time. Soon after what felt like an eternity (30 minutes) we were asked to commit the phalange killing job... bagging potatoes. I am Irish and I officially hate potatoes. WHO NEEDS THIS MUCH POTATO? We must have filled about 500000000 bags of spuds and by the end and my fingers were ready to jump off my hand. When my torture finally ended I was relieved. But for some reason I felt guilt. Volunteering shouldn't feel like this. I should leave feeling good. I think i need to come in with a more positive attitude or maybe change places. Many people are volunteering here anyways I think they have enough help. We'll see where I end up and hopefully I can actually go to a place where I can feel good about serving my community!

That New Book Smell

For the third post of the Equity Project, I went back to the Alameda County Library. I have not been able to go for a while, and was almost expecting to be reprimanded for my no-shows. Surprisingly, I was greeted warmly by Marta, the head of volunteer services at the library, and went straight into the work I would do for another two hours. Like last time, I had to process books, but this time I was able to process brand new books. While the process was similar, this time I had to also place a color-coded sticker on the side of the books that you see in the library. Something that I really appreciated about working this time around was being around new books. After Border's began to close down all over the Bay Area, no one has really been around a new book for a long time. I think the fact that the library began to process new books for people to enjoy was admirable since many people are switching over to ebooks like the Kindle or those on the iPad, and hardly anyone gets to enjoy the physical turning of a new page or the initial stiffness of the spine. I think the library is important in preserving a pastime that might be considered obsolete nowadays, since many future generations might not even experience the joys of holding an actual book, and I am glad to be a part of the preservation.

Third Times Not The Charm So Much..

For my third post, Joshua Christy and I went to (surprise) the Tri- City Volunteers. Josh and I felt like veterans already so we just walked in, put on our vests, and got to work. This time around, there was still a lot of people but none from our school so we were the only ones representin'. We did the same old, same old: bagging food, bagging cans, and suh-weeping. There was, like I said, a lot of volunteers that day like there has been lately so each activity was kind of short-lived, except for bagging cans which we did for a while. The creepiest thing happened actually. We were bagging cans, get a can of this, 2 cans of that, oatmeal, and a dessert. There was this man kind of telling people what to do so I figured "alright dude is in charge". But turned out he wasn't. He kept staring at me and I was like "please proceed to photograph me that picture will last longer". In my head of course. And he goes ".. that's where I saw you! You live at (insert my apartments' name here)!" I have never seen this man in my life. Imagine the thoughts I thought. I will be watching my back from now on. Afterwards, there was literally (pronounced licherally like Mr. Shawn says it) nothing to do so we were put to sweeping. Again the accurate duo strikes. We both felt that it was getting repetitive as we had feared so we weren't exactly sweeping ardently. *vocab word. It feels good knowing we're giving back but I feel we could expand our horizons and try other places. There's a lot more people volunteering at Tri-City nowadays, therefore, there is now more things being done and less for us to do when we show up late in the afternoon. So for our 4th post, Josh and I are going to find a new, exciting place and put in work. Watch out, world.

Cans


http://www.youtube.com/user/GingaSnap510?feature=mhum

For our third post Genesis and I decided to go back to the volunteer center. When we got there we wen't straight to the back and immediately started to can food. Genesis and I bagged peaches, fruit, vegetables, and a dessert. The dessert was really kind of gross. It was a choice between pitted plums, and a cup filled with green beans, which I'm not sure how those are considered desserts. We had to get cans out of these big red barrels, the ones that are used for canned food drives at grocery stores. It just made us think how we impact the homeless people or people in need. Their were cans and different stuff in there, but we still only used a select few. I was wondering what else the cans could be used for. After we bagged the cans we immediately started sweeping. Which got Genesis and I thinking that the Volunteer Center is really boring. So we will be searching for a new place, hopefully one that is better and doesn't involve a bunch of filler chores. The first time at the volunteer center along with the second are enough for Genesis and I at that place. Therefore we want to look for something that will have us help the needy directly.

STACKIN' CHICKEN PATTIES!

Before this post confuses anyone, this is written by PATRICIA DESANTORES through Genesis' blog. I had some difficulties with logging into blogger and this was my only choice. Click the link below to watch my second video podcast about me and Angela's second time volunteering at Tri-City Volunteers, Inc. My video is only part one, so tune in for part two that will be recorded by Angela :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acs7EV1wgBY

The Energetic Ones

For the first volunteering post, I volunteered with Josh Christy at Tri-City Volunteers and we decided to go to the same place the second time around. We showed up a little before three and told the man in charge we've been there before so he just told us to go straight to the warehouse. This time there was more people volunteering with us but none of them went to our school so we just kept to ourselves because we were getting looks. We started by bagging onions and filled up two whole bins by ourselves. Last time, we bagged potatoes and had Norma, Casey, and Brooke there for an assembly line but this time around it was just us doing it on our own. After we were done, we helped out another girl who was bagging bread. We just put three or more types of bread in a bag and put them in a huge bin for a while. Josh really loved ripping up the bread for some strange reason. After we finished bagging all the bread, we looked around and realized everything had pretty much been done. The other people there were really just sitting around talking to each other so Josh and I were just standing around waiting for the man in charge to come back in the warehouse. The man came back and he put everybody to sweeping. Josh thought he was Sir Sweeps-A-Lot or something with his enormous broom but I was the only one really sweeping accurately. We were dancing around while sweeping and again the looks. People were ogling like we had a third eye but we got the place clean so... After everyone got tired of sweeping, they went back to lounging. I took this as the perfect opportunity to showcase my stepping skills but one of the guys in charge took this the wrong way. He said since we're the only energetic ones, he'd put us to bagging cans and desserts. Soon, everyone was helping us and we filled a lot of paper bags with cans of stuff like corn, sauces, and soups. I got asparagus juice all over me but it went okay. Pretty soon it was time to go and Josh got upset because he wanted to bag some more bread. I was like really Josh, relax. We were glad we got to do different things than last time because we were worried it'd be the same thing for another two hours. Even though Josh and I were like loners, we had a good time and got a lot of things done. We plan on going back for the third time later this week and trust we'll still be the energetic ones there.

Driving there like pros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR-d7gFkBwg

Sweeping like pros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejDlkl6lMCk&feature=related

Bagging like pros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtUQJiJxxLY&NR=1

Kids scream the darnest things!

On my second day of visiting, I had learned that kids are always screaming. They have a tendency to think that they are the center of attention. I am starting to understand why parents and teachers are always frustrated and stressed when they are dealing with a bunch of very little kids.  I have never really understood what our minds were like when they were fresh and not touched by human hands.

On that day I have helped a child with his homework simple math then afterwards, I handed them out their healthy snack. Some kids asked me what high school was like because of how some of them were middle schoolers and had curious little heads, so I explained them how it was like and how fun it was to be a high schooler in Fremont. One kid had then asked me what happened in WWII, I couldn't really tell him because that all the information that I knew was very gruesome such as how they treated the Jews and how they choose their soldiers to be all blond and blue-eyed.  I told him that it was bad and shouldn't have happened.

After, I had helped the little kids and all of their work was turned in and done I gave them work so that they could do. Not long after, parents began swooping in and picking them up.  That is when I get annoyed because of how old they are and yet still not able to clean up after themselves.>:(

That was it for Day 2 of the Journal Entry.  I hope that they can learn to clean up for themselves. I plan to fix this habit before I get all of my hours.

Tri-City Volunteering 2nd Time

Driving there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR-d7gFkBwg Bagging Onions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtUQJiJxxLY Breaking it down Sweeping!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejDlkl6lMCk This time Genesis and I wen't to the volunteer center. It was a different experience because we were doing different things than from the first visit. This time we bagged alot of onions and filled up almost 2 bins of onions. Then we moved onto the bread. We had to package some bread, it might have been stale or it might not have. There were all different kinds of bread like sourdough, sesame seed bread, and this other kind that Genesis and I called giraffe bread because it looked like a giraffes fur. We packaged a lot of bread including large loafs and individual rolls. Once that was done we didn't really have anything to do because everyone was just sitting around. So Genesis and I decided to take a break. After a slight STEP session Genesis and I were put on sweeping duty because we had the most energy. We continued to break it down while sweeping. Which then got us moved to bagging cans. It was 6 cans per bag plus one dessert, the dessert consisted of green beans.... which I didn't really think was a dessert, and dried pitted plums. We began bagging and we bagged stuff like applesauce, and mixed vegetables. But then we got to reach into some bins and we found donated cans, which just shows that from canned food drives and other events this is where the cans are brought. I am looking forward to the next volunteer session because the last session was fun and it was also nice knowing that you're helping out people who need help. I am really considering doing this for most of my volunteer hours that are rquired by the school, maybe over the summer or something.

Call me spongebob, stackin' chicken patties...in a bag.

For the second day of volunteering, Patricia and I went back to Tri-City Volunteers. This time, we were pretty anxious to see if they would actually give a job instead of making us seal envelopes like last time. We arrived there, had to sign in first, and a man (who was bald and had a mustache) gave us green vests and tags to indicate that we volunteered there. "Follow me," he said; he led us to a table and told us to wait there and after a few minutes, came back with about 3 boxes. He opened them up, and we were introduced to...cookies? or pancakes? NOPE, it was frozen chicken patties. "Ok, so I want you guys to put 6 in each bag, tie them up, and put them into those boxes", he said, pointing to an empty box next to us. So we got to work! About 5 minutes into the process, I realized that tying plastic bags with rubber gloves is not the business. So I took one glove out, but was instantly caught by the Po-Po (not really, just another volunteer) to put my glove back on. We were going at a steady pace, when my eye caught the label on the box. "Hey Patricia...does that say...TYSON?!", I said. We both said, "Whaaaat?" and thought it was a coincidence since we recently learned about how Tyson was one of the food companies that didn't properly take care of their chicken; and there we were, touching the frozen chicken...gross. We continued with our work, went through all of the boxes, and though we were done. But the guy came back and said, "NO YOU'RE NOT" and led us to a big freezer. In the freezer, we saw that there were more boxes of chicken patties and other frozen foods. We grabbed some more boxes and went back to our table to get as many done. I would say that we went through about 7-8 boxes of doing the same process, but I didn't mind because it was way better than sealing envelopes. That day was way better than the first because we actually got out there, helped out, and got the satisfaction that we gave back to the community.

VIDEO LOG COMING SOON!...maybe.

Not so crazy of a day #2

On our second day we had to completly mop the entire shelter, and sweep, also put potatoes into a bag. All in all i thought it was alright ,but some others didn't really like it so much. We got there signed in then went straight to moping mainly because all the other jobs were taken and it soon time to close. We mopped the back store, the staff lounge, and also the main loading dock. There are many interesting people there, especially the boss he never stops working. He keeps working and never stops, if he needs something done he does it him self, so its very hard to find jobs to do there. Especially when there are other people working and have taken most of the jobs, you have to think creativly. These type of things are not usually easy to do. After moping, we loaded some potatoes into bags, filled some shopping carts and re-stocked the cans in a shelf area. We worked for about 2 hours and broke a sweat. After working i realized that it isnt easy feeding the homeless but all in all i felt good after like i helped many families, and changed somones life...

"Potatoes, potatoes. I'm sick of potatoes..."

Once again, I went to the Tri-City Volunteer center except this time I was with Leo Moyrong. Since it was Leo’s first time there, I waited for him to fill out the paperwork first. On our way out to the food pantry, we saw Francis, Zena, and Alencio there. We grabbed some gloves and a bright green vest and headed straight for the stack of potatoes. John, the man in charge, had assigned us to bag the potatoes. From experience, I knew that it would be much easier to run an assembly line. I bagged the potatoes about three-fourths of the way full and then Leo tied it up and threw it in the bin. At first, tying was quite difficult for Leo because of the gloves we had to wear but he caught on quickly and in no time we were working that assembly line! Leo and I worked on it for a while and later, three others joined us. It was a tedious job because grabbing the potatoes was not as easy as you thought it would be! After a little while, my hands started to hurt and sweat in those gloves so I decided to switch them out for sanitary purposes. The whole hour and a half we were bagging potatoes. It was nice to have Leo there to keep me company or else I would have been bored out of my mind. However, I didn’t dread over the job too much because I kept in mind I was giving back to the community. Towards the end, Leo and I rolled out a few carts for some of the people waiting to receive their food. Overall, it was a great experience again. However, if I could choose between bagging onions and bagging potatoes, I would definitely choose the onions because you only need three in a bag and they are much easier to grab!

Misfortune is constant

Ah the sweet taste of plans falling through. I've gone through about 4 processes of planning and attempting to volunteer at places and today was the closest I have gotten. The first attempt I wrangled was that of working at my church's food drive, but knowing my poor sleeping tendencies, I overslept and missed it. No big deal. Yet. Next I tried to volunteer at my local little league but rain rescheduled the date and I happened to be busy on the new day. Now I'm a little frustrated. After 2 fails, I decide I'm going to just use my youth group I attend every week, but after doing as usual I realize I totally forgot to take pictures... also I later talked to Mr. Speckels and he gave the advice of stepping out of my comfort zone a little more. At this point I'm angry and baffled on what I should do. Then this morning I hear Joaquin and Bryan talking about volunteering today so I decide to jump on and join them. Things were finally going my way!

So we talk it all out and we plan that Bryan is going to go straight to the place we are volunteering (Tri-City Volunteer) after school while me and Joaquin go home first and I follow Joaquin there. Trusting Joaquin as a seeing eye dog, I don't look for the place at all. We go down Peralta and Joaquin informs me that he doesn't know where it is. Great. We spend about half an hour looking for the place and I decide that I am going to lead and find the place. Being the man of the group I find it in about 5 minutes. Joaquin humbly thanks me and we trudge toward our destination.

We arrive at Tri-City Volunteer and I had no clue what this place even was. I was just along for the ride. I look around and we are basically in the ghetto, I see gang members, stray dogs, and homeless people wandering around. I desperately look for the entrance without being distracted by the noise of a car alarm and read that this is a pantry. Oh so we are serving homeless, I can do this. Joaquin calls Bryan and he says he is already working so we rush in. At first sight the place seems small and somewhat dirty then we get led to a factory type area with tons of potatoes and other food everywhere, next we follow our leader into an office where we were given paperwork to fill out. Well, the paper work took a little while and we go back to the manager and he says it is too late to work. There is some arguing whether we should be able to get half an hour and we are taken to the factory area to talk to someone about whether we should work. On the way we see Bryan as well as our former classmate, JAVIER. The man ended up telling us to come back tomorrow and thats what we plan on doing.

In the end this was another fail but I felt like this blog post was rather necessary. We at least came close to volunteering and we definitely have a commitment to do it tomorrow. I am excited to see what is in store for us and I hope I learn a lot.

Signed - John

Untitled from ]JT[ on Vimeo.