365daystogive's Blog

The day started too early.

For some reason I was up by 6:30, an hour before I was supposed to wake up, three hours before I wanted to.  As I lay there in bed I remembered that it was March 1st, and for a fleeting moment, my weaker side whispered “oh, don’t go and volunteer today.  You have so many other things you could do in that time, like, oh, sit around and watch TV.”

But I couldn’t do that to myself.  Once a promise has been made, I am known to try my hardest to keep it.  So let me tell you about my charitable deed today.

In our city there are a few places called “ReStore.”  They are places where people can drop off household items, even construction items to be sold and the profits go to support Habitat for Humanity.  Did you know that every 21 minutes a house is completed somewhere in the world by Habitat? Amazing.

So I showed up for my “shift” in the middle of controlled chaos.  After explaining that I was there just to volunteer, not to do “community hours”, meaning I’ve done something bad so the judge told me to be here time, I got not a few odd looks.

“So, are you, like, being philanthropic or something?” said the undergrad who had gotten a little too crazy at a basketball one night.  I shrugged and said “something like that.”

Another volunteer did an impromptu dance when he met me.  I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Jon, the man in charge, put me right to work with another volunteer moving doors from one side of the street to the store.  Even though I am only 5’1″ and the other guy was about 6’0″, it was clear that Jon could care less that I was a)short and b) a woman; I was impressed by his egalitarianism at doling out directions.

Although I spent a considerable amount of time waiting for my next assignment, I was kept fairly busy.  An older gentleman came in about an hour before I was scheduled to leave and bought about 100 cabinet doors, all of which had to be loaded into his truck.  If I had known the amount of physical labor I would do that day, I surely wouldn’t have gone to Power Hour yoga right beforehand.

While it was apparent that most of the people who shopped there (and were regulars) were in the lower income-brackets, they were given the same amount of time and respect as the contractors who came in to find some deals for a new house or development they were working on.

At the end of the day, I am tired, a little sore, but bolstered by all of the smiles that were sent my way.  I think I am going to really enjoy this coming year and have only started to understand how giving back to the community really is a wonderful thing to do, not only for myself but for the community at large.