Apr 28 2009
If you’re like me, you stay so busy that you have a difficult time fitting in all the reading you’d like to do. Novels, non-fiction books, magazines, blogs– that’s a lot of reading to fit into a full life with only so many hours in a day! I’ve finally found a solution: podcasts. Continue Reading »
Apr 27 2009
In my last post, I discussed how busy the springtime always is for me. So, I was really glad I was able to carve out some time this past weekend to volunteer, once again, at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. ABI employees, including myself and Janet Evans, volunteered there a few months ago following our Food Drive.
I showed up on Saturday morning at 9:00, and I was so impressed by the turnout. There must have been 75 people there– mostly adolescent kids– volunteering their time for a three-hour shift. This time, I worked in the salvage room, meaning I sorted through goods that grocery stores are not able to sell because the cans are dented or the packaging is otherwise damaged. Sometimes we had to throw away things that were most likely okay for consumption, but that the Food Bank wasn’t technically allowed to distribute because of the packaging’s condition. This was a little disheartening. But seeing the amount of food that we did salvage– about 8 pallets’ worth!– couldn’t help but cheer me.
This experience made me think about the huge, often exponential, impact that volunteering can have on a community. You see, I didn’t volunteer on Saturday alone. After my first time volunteering for the Food Bank, with the ABI, I joined the NC Food Bank’s Facebook page. One of my Facebook friends noticed that I had joined and recently volunteered there. She had never volunteered there herself, but when she saw that I had, she asked if we could do it together sometime. So, not only did I return to volunteer on Saturday, but I brought a new person with me. Imagine if every person around the world who volunteered could recruit just one person. The magnitude of that strikes me in a very poignant way.
And to top it all off, it was great to see my friend and spend time with her, which I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. Doing that hard work with her wasn’t at all painful or grueling. Quite the opposite; it was fulfilling to help out, and we chatted with each other the whole time. And we certainly felt like we had earned the big lunch we enjoyed afterwards!
Apr 09 2009
Ah, springtime. Behind summer, this is truly my favorite time of year. Everything is so vibrant, so fresh, so verdant! The first daffodils and fat robins in the yard never fail to pull me out of my winter doldrums.
But… on the flip side, have you ever noticed how springtime is the craziest, most hectic time of year? For me, it even surpasses the winter holidays. There are weddings, taxes, gardening… the list could go on. On the professional side, people feel a sense of renewal and motivation to get things done, to really make this year count. Thus, it becomes necessary to schedule meetings and social networking events galore. But how to stay on task with goals like these, with so many conflicting schedules?