Archive of April 2008
Musings
So, I probably look like a complete slacker. I’ve not updated this thing in a bit I must not be doing much!
Not the case!
So what have I been up to? I was actually scheduled to help test out some computer systems for donations couple weeks back, but since i was not feeling well at all that weekend, I decided to cancel it.
For the last month or so, I’ve been volunteering from home for the International Humanities Foundation. I have been placed in the Volunteer Task Team; specifically, I help assign new volunteers to different tasks. Things started a bit bumpy. The organisation was in the middle of making some changes to their application process and, at first, I was a bit lost. Now that I’ve spent many weeks with the process and working with the folks, I am becoming very comfortable with my task and doing my best to get it done.
While I’ve volunteered locally less, I still have continued volunteering. It may not be for a couple of more weeks before I do volunteer locally again. With Mother’s Day coming up, I will be spending a weekend delivering flowers throughout the metrowest area.
I’ve also been trying to sneak in a bit more personal time on the weekends as well. 
Women's Lunch Place
This past Saturday I spent a good portion of my afternoon helping out at the Women’s Lunch Place in Boston. As the link will explain, the Women’s Lunch Place (WPL) is where poor or homeless women and their children can go to for a hot meal.
I got involved with WPL through BostonCares. Specifically, I was there to help serve the wonderful ladies and help clean up once meals were finished. Once i got in and strapped the apron on, I felt very comfortable being in a large kitchen. Just shows you how all of those years helping my mom and her catering business really provided me with some skills i could put to use. The contrasting difference, is the complete lack of stress when helping setup and serve the food at WPL.
Volunteering there really was a great pleasure. It was a lot of fun to help them out and to treat those ladies as if each one was a special guest in a fancy restaurant. I hope that the great meal and the warm service has made them smile. :)
Because the organisation wants to provide a more personal touch, the servers take the already made plates to the ladies at their tables, as they would do if they were in a restaurant.
The kitchen staff, our project leader and the rest of the servers were really great. I even ran across another volunteer that i worked with previously at another one of the BostonCares projects. Everyone was very helpful and everyone worked together to do their best. Our project leader was wonderful and took the time to personally meet with just about everyone of our guests.
Once the dessert was served, I volunteered to take over the pot-scrubbing duty and did that for pretty much the remainder of the afternoon. Everyone helped out with cleaning up the kitchen as well as the hall.
Comparing this experience to my other volunteering experiences, this was the first time where I could interact with the people that i am trying to help out, while the other volunteering projects I’ve been involved with I had to ponder the impact on those I was trying to help.
Working at the WPL is one of the very hot places to volunteer at BostonCares and I most definitely will volunteer there again. The slots fill up fast, but I’ve already signed up to help out in one of the Saturdays in May. Though, I will have to plan a bit better my trip into Boston so that i do not end up paying $26 for parking at Copley Place again. I am looking forward to it