Abundant Helping Hands

My oldest daughter Sheridan got married last weekend and it was one of the most memorable times of my life, a real "family affair". Grandparents, siblings, nieces, husbands, and my children all worked together to make decorations, food, and favors ahead of time; then we put it all together and took it back down in a matter of hours. It was the best kind of celebration, with my daughters and son with his girlfriend helping one another, and my stepchildren pitching in wherever they were asked. By the time we returned home after the special occasion, it was time to jump right into work and the usual routine the next morning with only a little time for reflection. I made it through the week until Friday, when I worked with two skilled parent volunteers to host our twice-annual community service fair at the school. Twenty five community organizations manned lunchtime booths to promote volunteer opportunities for our high school students.

As one might imagine, by that evening I started to run out of steam. I struggled to find the energy to even drive home, and realized Saturday's plans might go on without me. The one activity I had wanted to do was a California-wide annual community service project with my church congregation; I suppose celebrating a successful event here will have to by my contribution.

Bob and the boys got up at 7:30 on Saturday and met at the church, where dozens of volunteers were sent to their locations: Montalvo Center for the Arts, or Mount Umminum. Either way, it would be a job of weeding, heaving, lifting, and moving. From nine to noon, fifty people from our congregation completed a total of eight spring clean-up jobs assigned earlier by the Montalvo coordinators, and another group just as large did restoration work at Mount Umminum. The hardest part about our site, according to Bob and the boys, was staying clear of poison oak. Sometimes we take for granted all the trails and walkways that are cleared of this noxious weed. These volunteers had no fear, trusting their gloves and a post-cleanup shower to keep them from infection. They also worked on repairing an overhang, moving a giant woodpile, and clearing a ditch what would have taken a bulldozer to accomplish.

At church today, I heard accounts of some other Helping Hands activities around the area, as far away as San Diego; more than fifty thousand members of our faith from all ages came together in an effort to be of service to our communities and especially for our state parks. A nearby young adult congregation rebuilt fences at Calero Park, making an assembly line with their leader's instruction and competing with each other to see who could build the fastest fence. In San Diego, the church volunteers were asked to serve breakfast and to work as course monitors for a community-wide 10K race. In my experience, having run many 5-and-10Ks, a race can never have enough volunteers! I'm sorry I had to miss our annual community service event due to my own physical exhaustion, but I am blessed with the perspective of an observer which allows me to contemplate the service that is given all around me every day. Because of last weekend and my benefiting from helping hands of family and extended family in support of Sheridan's Utah wedding, and after hearing about the monumental efforts of 50,000 church-member volunteers on one Saturday morning in support of parks and nonprofits in California, I feel blessed to be living in this time of abundant good works.

"By their fruits shall ye know them." (Matt. 7:16)

Cranes for Healing Wishes

Last month our students, parents, teachers and I all wondered what could be done to show support for the tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan. With California's Ed Code, fundraising on high school campuses can be tricky. The parents decided to host a bake sale anyway across the street, and they also raised relief dollars by selling "Pray for Japan" bracelets. But what could the students initiate? From dosomething.org, I heard about a crane-folding project where the students could mail origami cranes to studentsrebuild.org. That organization would receive a two-dollar per crane donation from the Jeff Bezos Family Foundation (Jeff is the founder of Amazon.com). Our goal: 1,000 cranes to send healing wishes for Japan, to be folded in one day, April 18th.

Our gifted Japanese teacher, Ms. Kamikihara, began to share the artful folding technique with all of her students, and by Spring Break our students were folding hundreds of cranes to bring on the day of the event. Last Monday, over one hundred energetic teenagers stood at ten tables near our student center during a rainy lunchtime, keeping their fingers and the little origami squares dry. I knew we would surpass 1,000 when I saw seven or eight bags full of cranes already made during Spring Break. The Japanese foreign language students wore red and white yarn on their wrists to designate their status as crane-folding mentors. The thirty-five-minute soggy lunch break passed quickly, and the origami artists were having so much fun that we had to remind them that the bell had rung and it was time to stop. Now came the hard part. How many cranes did we have? Mrs. Tajima, our stalwart parent volunteer, had a plan to place sets of 100 cranes in paper bags, then into the copy paper boxes we had gathered from the other departments.

As I ate a little bowl of soup to warm up, the parent volunteers counted the students' lunchtime effort. I finished the soup and had to get back to my class assignment. I left the parents to finish counting cranes into paper bags at the folding tables. An hour or so later, Mrs. Tajima sent word that not only had we wildly surpassed our goal of 1,000 cranes in one day; our students had made 6,000! She made the little 6,000 crane sticker above, so we could post it around the school to say thank you to all who participated. As it turns out, we just barely missed the deadline to sponsor the two-dollar-per-crane donation from the Bezos Family Foundation, but the foundation decided to double their overall donation from this promotion (thanks in part to groups like ours that came so close to the deadline).

In the process of mailing cranes to studentsrebuild.org and Architecture for Humanity, Mrs. Tajima also discovered the lofty "1,000,000 Crane Project" going on at Princeton (coincidentally, Mr. Bezos' alma mater). They were sent some of our cranes as well. We sent the remaining cranes to Osh Kosh B'Gosh, for their program to donate clothing to thousands of children in Japan who have been affected by the devastation. With the deadline for mailing cranes to the original organization having passed while we were out on Spring Break, the activity turned out to be less fundraising and more raising awareness. Either way, our students felt empowered to finally be able to make a difference for Japan.

Cool Community Service Idea:

Folding Cranes to Help Japan
(These sites also have instructions)

Architecture of Humanity project
http://studentsrebuild.org/japan/

Clothing Donations for Crane Donations
www.oshkoshbgosh.com/cranesforkids

Princetons Students' Healing Wishes
http://www.millioncraneproject.org/?page_id=7

Cesar Chavez Day of Service

What a day we had, celebrating the core values of Cesar Chavez on his birthday, March 31st. After a stirring message from Karthik Prasad, a Fellow from Stanford University Haas Center for Public Service, a diverse group of 120 Paly students contributed 7200 hours in service-learning around Palo Alto and beyond. They chose from seven organizations based on their interests and the values of Cesar Chavez: Milpitas Food Pantry; Magic, Inc. at Stanford Dish; Half Moon Bay Restoration; Lytton Gardens Senior Community; Creative Montessori Preschool; InnVision; and Ecumenical Hunger Program. My daughter Grace and her best friend signed up for Ecumenical Hunger Program, but I was needed at Milpitas Food Pantry.

Once we got the four buses loaded, we headed to East Palo Alto for two of the sites, then to Milpitas with my group. Of course, the exciting part of community service is that you never know what you may be asked to do. Karen Kolander, the director and one-woman-show thanked us for coming and informed us that our group of nineteen working four hours each, represented seventy-six man-hours--a feat she could never accomplish alone. She assigned us the task of emptying the storage closet and the storage unit of all donations made since the holidays and check each package or can for a valid expiration date. If a can was badly damaged or expired, we tossed it. The "would-I-eat-this" test was also applied, with permission to throw out rusty or aging cans with no dates. It is astounding to see how many food donations are inedible. At the food pantry, and earlier in the month at a food donation bin, I noticed someone's discarded "specialty diet food." Of course, if you wouldn't eat that yourself, why would a needy or homeless person find it appetizing?

Our students stayed focused on the job at hand, and I worked to keep them busy. There's nothing worse than a bored volunteer. When some students were standing around, I found a job inside sorting shelves in the "share area," where recently-expired foods and household goods can be taken, two per client. By the time the students were finished with that part of the project, the shelves looked as good as a Mom and Pop grocery store. Lots of organizational talent was contributed that day at the food pantry. My only regret was that I couldn't be in two places at once. Grace and her group ran out of things to do at the Ecumenical Hunger site. The overworked director wasn't quite the drill sergeant that Karen was at the food pantry, and they didn't have a parent ordering them around. Maybe next time, they kids will be bold enough take the initiative and find extra ways to fill the time and make a difference. As Karen said, "I'm the only paid employee for this facility, except for the janitor who works a few hours a week. I could never do it without dedicated volunteers." One of her regular volunteers even brought a platter of freshly cooked Afghan food while we were there, "For everyone to share," he beamed. Volunteering with kindhearted people is just one of the perks of giving back to the community!

Core Values of Cesar Chavez:
www.cesarechavezfoundation.org/.../Core_Values_with_Service_Project_Ideas.pdf

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A Small Act of Kindness Saves the Day

"Ms. Owen, Ms. Owen," I heard my name as a student I had never met approached me. I was juggling half a case of bottled water, community service day sign-up sheets, and a dvd case from fourth period before lunch. We had a training meeting during lunch for student leaders participating in our Cesar Chavez Community Service Day. When I arrived, my daughter Grace gasped through her pizza, "Mom, do you have any water?" I trotted across campus to get one of the leftover cases from a recent event and then back to the meeting. I tossed the bottles to the parched students, stayed in the lunchtime meeting for ten minutes, then headed back to take the rest of the water to my office before the start of the next class period.

As one might imagine, with all this hustling to and fro something might fall apart. I had forgotten about my cell phone and keys tucked into a shallow pants pocket and the phone went crashing to the cement after I stopped to talk on the last lap to the Tower Building.The girl looked at me very quizzically, as I didn't even realize I was missing something. She could have ignored my mishap as "one of those staff people," or she could have given the phone to someone who might have a little fun breaking into my photos and text messages. No, our students aren't that cynical anyway. They are known to do the right thing, turning in lost wallets, keys, phones and such. By her small act of kindness, this girl saved my feet from further trotting that day, making it so much easier to put myself back together after the most harried morning I can remember!

Five Dollar Service

What can I say? Some days are just crummy. One of our speakers for my Career Speaker event at school got confused about the time, so I had to tell 95 waiting students that she would be back next week. I wondered if this would keep happening for our three-week event, and was I simply trying to juggle too much? I had rushed to chaperon a field trip just before that, and then I worked in a classroom that did not have enough books for an open-book test. I couldn't seem to overcome the hurdles and by late afternoon I was feeling rather down.Thursday was not my favorite day.

As I waded through the 280 traffic toward home, I wondered how I could pull myself out of an emotional tailspin. Go on a run? No energy. Go shopping? No time or extra cash. Eat chocolate? Maybe. Grace was at her internship, and Bob's kids were away for the evening. I had one appointment on the way home, then I would take an hour for myself--maybe even to consume chocolate. As I pulled up to the stoplight at Bollinger Road, I noticed a man with a cardboard "please help" sign in the median. I've seen lots of people holding signs, but never in that location just across from Wendy's hamburgers. From inside my comfortable car, still feeling a little sorry for myself and dwelling on the losses of the day, I wondered what humiliation the weathered man had been through to make a cardboard sign and sit in the median asking for donations? Had he brought it on himself? Then I snapped back into pity mode, "A frosty from Wendy's sounds really good to me, maybe just the chocolate treat I need after this undesirable day." Of course, I deserved it after all I had suffered, right?

The light seemed to take longer to turn green for the moment, and I started to get irritated that this man was affecting me and my need to consume a treat to feel better after a bad day. I looked in my coin purse--usually nearly empty--and saw two five-dollar bills. The impulse surged and just as the light turned, I pushed the button to roll down the window and handed the homeless man one of the fives. He actually started to cry, "Thank you, I love you!" he said. Then he walked across the street to Wendy's. As if I had taken a magic happy pill, the misery of Thursday's failures completely left me. I didn't worry or care about what the man would do with the five dollars, for it was worth five hundred dollars for me to erase the sad feeling I had within myself. Who knew a down day could be cured by such a simple gesture! Next time you see me or a friend stressed or a little bedraggled by the blows of the day, feel free to remind us that we don't need to consume a thing. Often, giving a little something away is all it takes to feel good.

A Saturday of Service

Just a few years ago, my entire world fell apart--or so I thought. My passions were family, and hardcore snow-skiing. I even found a way to make a little money teaching the love of skiing to provide more of it for my family. Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, I had to trade in the ski passion for something else. I had always enjoyed planning community events and benefits, so the master of nonprofit administration program at University of San Francisco provided a switch in gears, big time. Moving from the Salt Lake Valley, back to the Bay Area where I grew up, I could no longer drive six short miles up a winding canyon road with my kids on a Saturday to ski and board fresh powder. This week I had the itch to ski! I had been lucky enough to teach for nine years, maybe to get it out of my system a little. That's what I reminded myself this morning when I woke up too far away from the slopes, and too tired anyway to do much about that.

The only exertion activity today would be a long bike ride through Stevens Canyon. At the beginning of the ride I stopped by Safeway to see Bob and his two boys manning the Second Harvest Food Bank drive. They had been handing out little cards to shoppers who would hopefully remember to grab some extra groceries as they went through the store and then drop them into the barrels out front. When I arrived, their barrel was two-thirds full after a two hour shift. "Not bad," I thought. As I watched the next shift of volunteers hand out cards I wondered why people gave fifteen-year-old Sam such a chilly reception. I hoped he would have more success to feel a sense of purpose with his Saturday service. Second Harvest is always in need of volunteers to do food drives. The little cards they provide make it so easy to give to customers as they walk into the grocery store. There is a checklist requesting stew, chili, soup, peanut butter, low-sugar cereal, fruit juices, canned fruits and veggies. Nobody can deny the slogan on the card, "Nothing else matters when you're hungry. Give what matters." I hope the shoppers loosened up a bit and filled the barrels this afternoon, making young volunteers like Logan, Cameron, Nathan, Brandon, and Sam feel like they made a difference.

After checking out the boys' progress on the food bank drive, I continued on my way to Steven's Canyon. As I pedaled toward the foothills I noticed some high school aged students with industrial size boxes and a bunch of cars lined up at Monta Vista High School. Of course, I had to check it out! I found out these community service and leadership students (including Benjamin and Aditi, with whom I spoke) were hosting an e-waste recycling event, sponsored by Green Mouse Recycling. They had taken flyers around the community asking people to bring their old computers, cell phones, car batteries and electronics to the pallets at school today. The recycling company would pick up the waste and pay the student volunteers for a percentage of the value, which they in turn could use for another community benefit. Last year, they used the $1000 donation to improve overall recycling efforts on campus. Our school has two groups that work to promote environmental awareness, and we have a Goodwill truck parked in our lot trying to gather e-waste. Perhaps Paly could give it try sometime. The Monta Vista students and the owner of Green Mouse were running around organizing donations, while they told me that nearby Los Altos High School was also hosting a similar event today--with 200 cars lined up! There is so much more going on around here in my hometown than I could have imagined, had I remained looking from my limited view at the slopes of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Finding all of the service that goes on in my community is like a treasure hunt every day. Of course, I can never get the itch to ski completely out of my system, but the excitement of finding more and more good works comes pretty close when there's no snow in sight.

The bike ride would have to provide enough exercise-based endorphins for me this weekend, so maybe I could take the turns really tight and it would feel like the arcs of my skis. As I wound through the hills between Garrod Stables and Congress Springs Park, staying ahead of an older gentleman close behind I noticed a man and woman riding together at a relaxed pace. I didn't want to slow down to stay behind them--this needed to feel like hardcore skiing so I was going to push myself. As I wound through a few more turns and got closer I could see the man had a prosthetic leg, and they both wore "Team in Training" shirts for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They were on a training ride for a fundraising event--more community service today! My job as observer sometimes reminds me I could do more good works instead of whining that I can't go skiing enough on Saturdays. As I thought about the man with a missing leg riding some tough hills to benefit leukemia patients, a dozen students gathering green waste to benefit the environment, and the teenage boys collecting food bank donations I realized there is more to life than skiing on a sunny March weekend. The world has need of more people who spend an occasional Saturday doing community service and good works.

El Camino, The Way

There is nothing quite so scary as a teenager begging to be taken the hospital "right away, Mom!" I had a feeling something wasn't quite right with Grace on Wednesday when she was throwing up all night, and I had a distinct impression to go back home mid-way through my work on Thursday. "Just in time," the surgeon said later as he came out of the operating room, "One more day and that infected appendix would have burst." For all the anxiety surrounding an emergency appendectomy, I felt blessed to be in a country with fabulous medical care. My daughter would be able to come home in time for a special family weekend with her sister and her niece visiting--the wonders of modern science!

El Camino Hospital was the place where I was born, the location of my father's untimely passing at age 39, and my community connection when I volunteered as a candy-striper to find out if my passion was physical therapy. I hadn't spent much time there since high school, other than a couple of ER visits for Grace's recent ear infections. Our surgery experience this President's Day weekend provided healing to my soul, in addition to my daughter's health. The "pink ladies," as the adult volunteers are still called, greeted us warmly in the lobby and offered directions. Maybe their kindness helped me maintain perspective. When the admitting clerk and the floor supervisor began sparring over duties and couldn't figure out why they had no record of my daughter being sent there by the surgeon, I assertively called the doctor's office from my cell phone instead of coming unglued and snapping at the should-be-retired front desk clerk.

"Mom, how can I get involved in the community?" I asked during my lonely junior year at Homestead High School. My mom told me how much she had enjoyed her time working as a pink lady at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City, so I gave it a try. When the PSAT results came back and the career wheel matched my scores with physical therapy or interior design, I asked the volunteer supervisor to change my assignment from delivering books and wheelchairs to helping in the rehab department. After working with a particular patient who was sorry she was still alive, I decided to keep my options open. However, I got to spend every week in the rehab wing, and to truly understand what it takes to be a successful physical or occupational therapist. Service not only brought me out of my self-absorbed-sixteen-year-old shell, but also gave me direction to pursue and a sense of purpose while in college. I did end up majoring at first in Pre-Occupational Therapy (would have been a great job), but changed to Interior Design (a fine fit).

As the nurses and pink ladies attended to my daughter and my family this weekend, I felt renewed by the generous spirits at El Camino Hospital. Even though I didn't pursue that first career path from my high school experience, I had felt empowered from reaching out through volunteering and helping others. I saw so many people that had worse lives than mine--some who would stay in the hospital for a very long time. Some like my dad, who wouldn't make it home. I learned to be grateful in giving.

The facilities have grown, making my old aggregate stone and brick birthplace barely recognizable. The interiors have benefited from talented design professionals with a flair for healthcare spaces. The lobby and corridors are colorful with original artwork, even graced at times with volunteer musicians playing the piano or guitar. I was looking for the candy-stripers, but didn't see them this weekend. However, the pink lady who wheeled my daughter out to the car sent us home with a tiny handmade crane glued to a card from the hospital auxiliary with 1,000 healing wishes. Perhaps the candy-stripers help to make those cranes. I hope there are some teenagers who find their connection and their path through El Camino, like I did. It has become more than a place for medical care for me, it is a symbol of healing, and The Way to a good life.

Interested in Helping with Healthcare?

Try these cool connections...

• Contact your local hospital's volunteer coordinator. Some hospitals have background checks and waiting lists, but if you are patient you will find an opportunity. You might also consider offering to share specific talents, instead of a regular shift: music, crafts, card games. (Some of our high school students started a poker club at a rest home, so be creative!)

• Contact the fire department to see if they have an EMT Explorers program. You will ride along as a trained volunteer to respond to emergencies.

• Contact a health clinic in your area for volunteer opportunities and/or a Medical Explorers program. On the Peninsula/Bay Area, Palo Alto Medical Foundation (Palo Alto office) has a monthly program for high school and college students.