Volunteering Oct 17, 2010

I want to write about the past two weeks of volunteering. First off, lets go over last week.

What was the most exciting happy volunteering experience was also the most disappointing.

My great friend Adrienne decided to volunteer with me. We planned on meeting before, but she wasn't able to make it. So this time, she texted me at 4:34 right when i was waking up. We met down there almost at the exact same time. She followed me to the lot and luckily there were very few people there.

Getting in we peeled grapes and did fruits. Then started to serve. They put Adrienne on the food line putting food on the trays and made me do coffee. There were a lot of different volunteers there so I had like 2 helpers on coffee that actually took over while i bussed tables.

Everything was going well, however i was getting a bit frustrated. I am uncertain what they want me to do. The new boss is Marcus, who i guess i am not comfortable with yet. Maybe that is what was a little uncomfortable. I didn't seem to get what he was saying, as he speaks very softly and he has some terms for the jobs i'm not sure what they are. Either way, I just don't want to feel as if I'm doing something wrong or should be doing something else. I just want to help.

The part that really got me upset was when Adrienne brought out a cart with the extra food and was going around giving it to people that wanted it. There were a few people, one younger man that stands out, that were almost harassing her. They were asking her name and where she is from. Adrienne is an amazingly open, empathetic, and kind person. She was trying to be friendly, but some of these people were bugging her constantly. I went over and gave her support trying to put myself in between them. They werent outwardly threatening her, however she didn't deserve that kind of harassment. You could see in her eyes that she was startled. We don't need that kind of treatment ever, we are helping on our own free time with nothing but the joy of being appreciated and helping!.

After we volunteered, we went to a place only a block away from the Denver Rescue Mission that serves breakfast. It is a place called SNOOZE. It is so surreal to see this trendy breakfast place no less then 150 feet from a place where people are waiting in line for a small piece of meat and a mis-shapen pancake. All up the street there are places you wouldn't expect there. A jeweler, a night club, a steak house. Reminds me exactly like that Poison song... "a mile away live the rich folk, and i see how they living it up. The poor they eat from hand to mouth while rich drinkin from the golden cup" Just makes me think more and more each day.


Today, I went down there feeling pretty good. When i arrived, there were two people already there. A woman named Kiersten and a guy named Greg. Kiersten was doing this just because she said she had not job at the moment but wanted to help and Greg said his Dog wakes him at 4 every day so might as well help out. Both were very nice. Also met Ruby who was doing this for a class.

I served coffee and FINALLY they moved it to a new location. It was actually my idea as Marcus has gotten more familiar with me and gave me free reign to put it where i wanted. I told him it was a huge bottleneck and that putting it off to the side was best. It worked awesomely and people got through the line much faster.

The breakfast rush went by smoothly and I even heard some of the men talking about The Vikings and there were a few active conversations about the game between the Vikes and the Cowboys. Being a huge Vikings fan I was silently cheering on the Vikings supporters! GO VIKES!

Once breakfast was over I helped fold some forks and left around 730. As i was leaving Marcus came up to me and shook my hand. "we couldn't do this without you" he said and said that when I'm there I am the boss. Not sure what that meant but it felt good.

Driving home I felt really good. I cant wait to see what next week holds.

Oct 3rd 2010 Volunteering with a Friend

(4:15 am) I am up a bit early today because on of my dear friends, Adrienne, has decided to join me in volunteering. She has been thinking of doing it for quite a while now, but has been very busy. I am glad she is going to go because I think she will truly enjoy it. She has an amazing heart.

I had already signed up last week for the next month. Apparently you can only sign up four times at a time. I went into the website to change the number of volunteers (was 1) but when I tried to update to 2 it said they were full. We are going to try to wing it and I doubt they would turn her away. I know she wanted to do this for the community service she has to do for her marital arts. She is testing to be a black belt!

I hope it is a good experience for her as I would love for her to come back. Will write about everything when I get back. We are thinking of having breakfast after. I found a cool place not to far called Pete's Kitchen. "Pete" restuarants are littered all over Denver and go way back to teh 50s.

Be back in a bit to tell how it went.
(9:54am) I just got back form volunteering. I texted Adrienne at 5:25 and unfortunately she over slept. No worries there is always another day to go. She felt very bad but I told her not to worry about it. There is forever to volunteer and she is going to go with me next week. She wanted to take me to breakfast to make up for it, but honestly it was so early and she was up late with company.

We went to a place called Pete's Kitchen. Pete has many restaurants around town and I hear they all are pretty good. The walls were adorned with "best in westword and Denver and other places" with various years attached to them. I got a huge breakfast burrito smothered in green Chili. I LOVE good green chili and this was not bad. Adrienne had an omelet and we spoke about our week and that hopefully we can both volunteer next week. Adrienne is awesome and I love hanging out with her.

So volunteering itself was fun, I tore up lettuce and tomatoes and mixed salads. Then I served breakfast by handing out trays. They rearranged the dining area so it was a bit cramped. It went smooth and I had fun.

I look forward to the colder months so I can volunteer more.
There are a lot of opportunities.