WHS Car Show

For my third volunteer experience I decided to do something that actually associated with one of my classes, it was to help at the 8th annual Washington High School Car Show. Every year for the last seven years Washington has put on a car show in the senior parking lot. Some people may wonder how it is a volunteer experience in the first place since car shows raise money but this one is different. Instead of money we raise canned food and give it to an organization when its all over.
My job at this event was to help set up the stage and the awnings for the individual stations. After all of this stuff was done and set up I was able to enjoy the different stations and win some of the stuff that was being given away. However i still had to watch the cars to make sure no one messed with them and pick up garbage during the whole thing, being a worker. Then at the end of it all i also had to help take everything down and put it away, which was easier than putting it up.

Precious Dental Care

I’m doing my internship and volunteer hours at a dental office. The thing that made me feel better was that I wasn’t the only one doing my internship there. I go there every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday after school from 3-6 and on Saturdays from 8-5. It’s a good experience I’ve learned new things. The first time I went in I was at the put at the front desk, pulling out, and filing back patients charts. They also made me look at the whole weeks schedule and look at every single patient that came in for an appointment that week. By doing that I had to figure out if we “build” [made money] of that patient. As the days went on my experience became better because every day I learned and did something different. I swear I don’t think I ever put on so many gloves in my life, I felt bad because I felt that I was just wasting the gloves. But it was okay because the staff members told me that it was to be done, that for every patient new gloves had to be worn. Soon I was in the back: cleaning and setting up the trays, sterilizing [cleaning] the instruments, transmitting the x-rays into the computer, and finally assisting the dentist with cleaning [suction]. The first time I was going to assist I was nervous because I didn’t have any experience with that. Now I’m use to it, and it’s what I like to do the most. This is an opportunity I didn’t think would happen, but I’m glad that I’m helping in some way or another in making people’s teeth better.

Kyle and Deep talking about their experience at CPC

"I'll Get Close but I'll Never Hit You!"

For my third time volunteering, I decided to go to Tri-City again with Angela. On our way there, I already expected for the both of us to do something we've done before. However, when we got there, we were given jobs that we haven't done before. We got there and we're told to bag potatoes. It wasn't bad but counting twelve potatoes and bagging them gets boring after a while. When we got done, a fellow volunteer told us to help load food into shopping carts. These carts included sliced bread, canned goods, potatoes (the ones that we bagged), desserts, and pasta. After loading these carts, one of us would take a name card and take a cart with us to give to the person that is on the name card. The first time that I walked out to deliver a cart, I was approached by an elderly Asian man and he asked me about his cart. I somewhat panicked because I didn't know what to tell him since it was my first time doing this job. But not too long after that, we were able to give him his cart and everything turned out okay. At one point, when we were putting desserts into the carts, we noticed that the desserts they gave out were very delicious. One of them was a giant vanilla cake and man, that cake went through an adventure!

So here's how the cake went through adventures. We put the cake in one cart along with the rest of the food and I had the honor to take it out to an elderly woman. When I was unloading the food into her car, she stopped me and began to take out certain things out and left the rest in the cart. The cake was up next to be put in the car and as I was about to put in the woman's car, she stopped me. At first, I thought she wanted something else but I realized that she really didn't want it. She kept saying, "Too much fat, too much fat" and I knew that they were probably on a healthy diet and eating a giant cake wouldn't be a good idea. I brought the cake back inside and I told everyone how she didn't want the cake and we all joked that if nobody wanted it, we'd take it! But it wasn't too long until someone else took the cake and they're most definitely going to enjoy it!

At one point when I was loading carts, one of the people in charge was driving this giant truck thing in the center and almost hit me. Or at least I thought he did (haha). He stopped and said, "Don't worry I won't hit you! I'll get close but I'll never hit you!" It made me laugh because he seemed to have a sense of humor and I didn't see that side of him the past couple of times that I volunteered. After almost two hours of loading and taking out carts to the needy, it was time to sign out. Overall, third time's the charm. We had new jobs to do and it was definitely better than the past jobs we've had to do. Good times, good times!

That one pile of dirt that never makes it into the dust pan.

Today I went to Tri- City Volunteer Center. I definitely had a good time but I was super embarrassed. I had the chance to meet some people when I gave them their food. Some people where very picky, others were very courteous and thankful. I felt so bad when we didn't have something they needed. I tried my best to talk to them and tell them to have a good day. One guy asked me, "So what did you do to get in here?" I said it was for school. He asked because most of the people are there for court ordered offenses. He said he ran a red light so he had to go. I felt bad because he needed apple juice for his baby but we didn't have any so Casey brought him some baby yogurt. We hoped that would be okay.

I had to mop and that was a challenge because I have mopped with one of those yellow buckets with the squeezer. The boss of the place came over and started to show me how to use it. He said I put too much soap on the floor. But I didn't know how! He was telling me I should wear sneakers and not flip flops. I definitely didn't know that was a rule. That guy left and another volunteer walked over and he TRIED to show me how to mop TOO. I was so frustrated and embarrassed! I asked Angela to take over so I started sweeping for her. Leo and I were getting angry with the dust pan because it was broken and the dirt kept missing the pan. We finally just started sweeping out of the door because we didn't know what else to do.

Overall today was super fun, but I was very mad with the mean boss. He made me feel stupid and he started to have attitude with me! I was sorry I never mopped before!!! That is my story!!

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.

Equity Post #3

For this time of volunteering I decided to do wildlife again. It was really fun this time around. Over the course of this project I have really built a relationship with most of these kids. For this club we had a game show night. The college leader in charge told all of the leaders to dress super crazy so we could make the kids feel more comfortable around us. When we got there, there was a bunch of stuff to be set up. Like inflatable fools. Set up food and a lot of other stuff just so that it is easier for the college kids to do there job and run club. There were a couple new people there so I had to show them around and what to do and how things work. This time was a lot more fun than the other times I think it is just because of the kids. They make it fun to be there. I am definitely doing this after this project is over.

Helping out (not so much)

Edwin and I went back to the center again. We did what we did before, we washed our hands then put on the vest indicating we are part of the group. When we walked around we realized that there was a lot more families visiting this time. This was a good thing for us because this mean that there will be less people for us to sing for. Though I feel bad for the people who didn't have a family to spend their time with. After we sang for the people in their rooms we went to cafeteria where we started playing music on the CD player and people broke out dancing. This time it was a lot more fun because I didn't fell out of place because I knew what I was doing.

Wild Land Drills

Today, at our weekly Monday we met up with firefighters to help set up a wild land drill. Since the weather is going to get hotter and dryer, we went to a hill where we could practice these drills. They used a Type 3 engine, which is all wheel drive and is lifted, so it can go drive on not so trust-worthy terrain. We helped them set up, and when they finished the drill we helped them put it down. They pulled hose, and set it up to fight the "fire" around 1000 feet. They need so many feet of hose since on a wild land fire, the terrain and weather is always unpredictable. It could go up trees, or the wind could change directions, and go very fast.



These drills are vital to Fremont. With the Niles Hills, Mission Peak, Morrison Canyon, and Coyote Hill, we have some big places to cover. With the wild land season right around the corner, every little thing helps. Practicing for the real thing is a smart move. Since we usually don't have many warnings, we can't get rusty. The explorers are here to help the firefighters prepare for that, since potentially we could help on wildfires too.

Fresh Out of the Oven

Friday was my third time going to the Tri-City Volunteer Center. This might be my last time since it was kind of boring. I went right after school with my friend Joden Ulep from American High School. First, we went into the office and my friend filled out his papers because he was a first-timer. Normally, there are a lot of people there, but this time it was so "dead". There was almost nobody there volunteering except for the man that was in charge of the pantry (John). Aside from us two there were three other people. At first, we were bagging toilet paper. It was two rolls per bag. After we ran out of bags, we went to push carts out for the people who were waiting for their food. There were no more slips so we went to bag breads. There were all types of breads: brown, raisin, onion, French, sourdough, etc. We were told to just put any type of breads in there, as much as we could fit. We had to "break the bread" in order to fit it in the bag. A lot of the breads were really hard and stale. Some breads, I had to twist with all my might! My arms got really tired. And some of the breads smelled really bad, but some smelt really good! They even had breads bigger than my head! I didn't have a picture this time because I had no camera or phone with me. At the end, we swept up and cleaned the tables.

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.

Coach Blanco

Over spring break me and Nick decided it would be best if we tried to help out with coaching kids in the little league. Nick made a few calls, calling many old coaches without success, but finally we received a chance to help out. The coach's name was Rob and he coached the kids at Mattos Elementary,  home of Centerville American Little League. We scheduled our visit on the last Saturday of spring break and once we got there we went straight to work, helping in anyway possible.


We were kept pretty busy while there. One of the first things we did there was get out the equipment for the team while they did there daily routine of stenching and running. This was easier than i though as the equipment was relatively light, compared to the ones at school i had to carry for football. When we were done with the equipment, they had us stand next to the coaches, who were were hitting ground and fly balls to the kids and catch some balls as they they through them back to us. When it was the kids turn at batting we stood out on the field and catch balls that went our direction. The whole day was relaxing and fun and i enjoyed it a lot. Being out on the field again was great even tho it wasn't football and i wasn't playing, i still had a wonderful time. The experience was great and i wouldn't mind going back and helping the team out again.

Working in the garden #3

Its the third time working in the garden and yet no new experiences are being taught. Despite the fact that i had my chance to learn how to use the lawn cutter machine, i always wanted to try something new until i get real bored of it. Boredom is the key to putting an end to something. However that faith seems to never withdraw from me. This time, cutting the grass was a bit more of a pain! I started to think about quitting F.I.E.R.C.E. Not only is it a waste of time on a Friday Afternoon, but despite this Friday, May 6th, I didn't have much time to start on my 4th Volunteer based on a field trip taken place. Although i decided that i might be working on tutoring little kids on academics so i can learn something i could have possibly forgot and at the same time enjoying my time watching little kids smile, play and learning all day.

This week was a bit of a burden to my leisure time. I didn't enjoy much of my time spent there because of a different role given to me at the garden. I was asked to weed the grass with the weed puller/dispatcher. I had no idea how to use it and i was being scold for using it improperly. After realizing what type of coordinator would treat a rookie in the garden, i have decided I AM NOT supporting this F.I.E.R.C.E. gardening anymore and im putting an end to it. I have learned enough and i wish i can look forward to tutoring little kids in the Fremont MAIN Library some day.

OHS Work Time

**Correction from my last post: Poochie is half dove and half pigeon**
My second time at the OHS Center went really well. I did more stuff, and helped out with the animals. Angela was there since I went the first Saturday of spring break. One girl from last time, don't remember her name, was there and David too. We talked more, and he's pretty cool and funny. When I walked in, Angela asked me to clean Poochies cage, and since last time I was there, I saw how it is done. The girl from last time walked in before I could start and we worked together.

Poochie, the blind dove and pigeon was put in a box while we went outside from the other door to her cage. Its a pretty big cage. Before we could get to Poochies though, we had to go through a rooster or chickens. I'm not sure what it was, but it was huge, with claws. The girl I was with went through, and I washed it from the inside, while she washed from the outside. We washed out all her poop, mats and towels. After sanitizing her cage and refreshing her food and water, we put Poochie back in. She seemed happy, but i don't speak bird so I'm not sure.

There wasn't much we did that day. After Poochies cage was clean, Angela told us to read a board with a bunch of papers on it, and told us we have to take another test. I was thinking "nooooooo", it would probably be an easy test, but still, I would rather be helping the little animals or something. The girl and I were reading the board and David joined us. He was messing around with the white board and we started laughing. We asked him if there was really going to be another test, and he said no.

After another thirty minutes my dad came, and we left. It was fun that day. It was easy, except the part when we forgot how to set up Poochies cage, and also trying to get past the rooster. I signed up for Wednesday too before I left. I was really happy I had a chance to work with one of the animals, and was really looking to coming back to help.

Same Thing As Before.....Sorta

As usual, I went and volunteered at Furry Friends Rescue. However, this time it was different than before. First, I was 30 minutes late. Usually I would have been kind of worried, since it's all old women that run it other than one guy. However, they were actually glad for some reason. This was because they told me there was supposed to be 7 volunteers and only 3 people, including myself, showed up. Normally, I would have been like "oh, that's too bad." But, since they were expecting more people, they told more foster homes to bring their dogs. Which meant I had to sit with more than one. Ouch. Sure enough, there was an overload of them, and each of us got stuck with like 3 or 4. Luckily, I was the only one with 2. At this point, things were a little different. First of all, it was a slow day. No more than 20 people came by. Because of this, the people in charge were actually talking to us about random stuff. One of them happened to go Hawaii, and she brought back chocolates from there ans decided to share it with us. It was good. Not only that, but there were bums running around singing and people crashing into each others cars for some reason. As fun as it was eating Hawaiian chocolates and watching homeless people sing, I think i'll volunteer somewhere else for my next post, as I can only say so much about sitting in a cage with dogs.

Familiar Faces

Finally, after a long struggle to be able to come to the rehabilitation center again, Chris and I were able to make it to the location together. For me it wasn't that different then before. Same employees, same patients, same routine. Of course, we started off washing our hands and then sang after that. I noticed many families within many rooms as we passed by. I think this is because Mother's day was coming up and some people didn't have time to visit on the actual day. We didn't have to sing in as many rooms this time because some families wanted "alone" time. This we respected. I felt happy that so many people had a loving family that would come to them. I began to pity those that weren't as fortunate. It felt good helping the "forgotten" people feel remembered. My mom would tell me stories about how some of the patients didn't have families. I was happy knowing that what we did could substitute for that, even though we weren't really family. Later, after we finished singing in the rooms, we walked down the hall to the cafeteria. There, many families were helping their elderly loved ones to eat. Our group quickly went in and plugged in the CD player. Soon, many people were dancing. It was fun watching the people interact with each other. No one was forgotten and I felt this sense of friendship between all the people.

All By Myself

So amazing 4.0 Ryan went to Mexico to go build houses. And something came up in Brit's schedule. So I got to be all by my self. Sad Face. Anyway, every year my mom has done a poster contest run by CCCR. The contest is called "Habitat Means Home," and every public elementary school in Fremont is allowed to participate. The requirement is that you draw a picture based off of habitat and spieces you would find at Coyote Hills. We have been doing this poster contest, now for five years! And we were worried we wouldn't get a good outcome because of such short notice...but we got 295 posters! The most we've ever gotten. And that ment...a lot of work for me. My job was to take all 295 of them and first separate them by school, then by grade, then teacher, and then alphabetize. Which was such an easy job NOT. That took about three hours just by itself. Not only does that happen but, we also have to enter every single poster into the computer with the name of the student, their school, email address and phone number. That way we can contact the families and let them know if their son or daughter has won any of the places or honorable mentions. The students don't just have to draw a picture though. They also answer questions. So all in all, that helps the three judges add up all the factors for their favorite poster/artist. The student who wins first place not only gets a prize, their school gets five hundred dollars. My job wasn't very difficult, but it was most definitely time consuming. Not only that but then we put all the posters up in the Coyote Hills Visitor Center so the public can view the art work. Tomorrow, we have the awards ceremony for the artists and the families to come and watch their success. Then we also give a tour of the Butterfly Garden that we have worked so hard on so we can just make the kids more aware of what is happening to the habitat around them. The whole point of this contest is to spread knowledge because if you think about they are going to be the ones who put up a fight for saving and conserving land. Florence was very pleased with the outcome. And I can't wait to see all the kids tomorrow and meet them! :)

Lets Make an Assembly Line!

For the third time volunteering Jennifer and I went to the Tri City Volunteers. It was something different than the Senior Center so we decided to try it out. It wasnt that bad actually. It was really easy to sign up and start volunteering right away. Before we started we had to go to this room and sign papers. I thought the room we did this in was cool. I know, this sounds wierd, but it was! It was like sitting at a conference table..you know, those long ones with a bunch of chairs around it. I felt all important. Anyways after we signed all the papers we followed the lady to the back. It was kind of stuffy back there. The back is what the picture is. I was amazed at how much food they had. There were boxes and cans everywhere. Also bins with stuff in them. We then signed in and put this bright yellow vest on. While we did this Zena, Karlie, Sierra, and Alencio came in. We all stood there waiting for someone to tell us what to do. Finally someone told us to go bag cans and other non perishable food. We all formed an assembly line so it would get done faster. My job was bagging the cans of beef stew, how fun. This is all we did too. There were a lot of bags done when we finished and I'm sure the people who are getting them will appreciate the help Tri City Volunteers gives them. Basically, i had an okay time. It wasnt really fun but then again I dont think any volunteering is. Me and Jennifer are going to go back for our last time. I liked volunteering there in a wierd way because it was easy stuff and it was so convenient. I can just go back and volunteer whenever i want, all i have to do is sign in when i come in and sign out when i leave. Pretty easy and simple. Hopefully next time will go by just as fast and easy.

Time to Work at the Register

As the time krept closer to writing this blog, I had to figure out a place to volunteer for a few hours since I was unable to be with Kate one evening. I decided to call one of my friends to help me get some hours in and luckily, she has been volunteering at this thrift in Irvington. So, she said I could tag along. which, I happened to do after school today. We drove right over to the store and drove to the backside of the store. I thought this area was kinda sketchy but, then again I have never been here before so I would'nt really know much about it. I was nervous to get out of the car, I honestly didn't know what to expect. Though, I had to get out of the car. We walked through the doors into the shop where I was greeted by a short Asian lady with a clipboard. She welcomed me and told me that I could stay and help. All I had to do was be in the backroom and sort clothes that people donated the days before. It was quite easy but, the bags were in these big yellow wooden bins which was hard for me to pick up the bags of clothes because well, I'm short. I managed, and opened the first bag and started folding. A few minutes later the lady checked up on me and asked if I was doing alright. Of course I answered with a "yes" though I was thinking "these clothes need to be washed about 20 more times" but, that would be rude. She let me continue. As I was folding I realized that some of the clothes were damaged and nobody would ever buy it so I didn't really know what to do till another volunteer said that the green wooden bin was for clothes that weren't "sell worthy". By this time I was sort of bored and wanted to actually I don't know, be more involved with he store. So I asked the Asian lady with the clipboard if they needed help. Luckily she said I could work at the crash register with another volunteer. It was actually really fun and I liked having a small conversation here and there with a customer. By this time, it was 530 and time to go and so we left. Yet, before we were to leave and let the other volunteers take over I wanted to know the head lady's name since I couldn't see her name tag the entire time. Her name was Kim. I thanked her and left. So my volunteer opportunity was quite fun and a good experience.