Category: volunteering

Monday Disaster

I am finally in a relatively calm state of mind to describe what happened on Monday.

I took Monday off because my many years of cookie shipping taught me that there is not enough time to pack and ship, especially when it comes to international shipping, and I end up having several sleepless nights and late shipments. This year, I decided to face reality:)

There was one more thing I planned to do on that day: as usual, I bought several gifts for the families in the transitional living program at the Night Ministry, but this year, there were multiple heavy items, so my plan was to Uber them to the Night Ministry in the middle of the day. Then I realized that I am running out of time to be able to do both mailing and Ubering to the Night Ministry, and besides, there were so many so heavy things that I started to doubt whether I would be able to load them into Uber. So I emailed a person with whom I coordinated the donations and asked her whether possibly someone from the office would be driving in my direction. She replied that she can pick up things and that she will message when she is close to me.

About five minutes before her arrival, I started moving things down because I realised I needed at least four trips.

I made two trips down with the heaviest things, met my neighbor, who was picking up her grocery delivery, and I helped her move her packages up, took the next portions, and went down. And then I could not believe my eyes: everything I had already moved to the vestibule was gone!

I rushed out of the door – there was obviously nobody! I asked the Amazon driver, who was taking things out of his car to deliver to the other side of the street, whether he saw somebody walking out of our door, but he obviously didn’t pay attention. And just then, a person who was picking up my donations showed up.

Even though I had a suspicion since my stolen cookies episode two years ago that someone had our master key, and suggested rekeying both buildings, my idea was rejected, and we were advised not to buzz in anyone we don’t know. This time, I am sure nobody was buzzed in, because the buzzing sound is always audible on the stairs, so I would have heard.

That’s it. I didn’t go to the Knox Holiday party at the Steppenwolf that night because I felt in the wrong mood for a party. It was only yesterday that I realized that if I went, I wouldn’t be able to talk about anything except for these stolen donations. Now, I am sort of-kind of-not so horribly upset.

The Night Ministry was able to replace my gifts, but the household items I donated were gone. The worst was not even the monetary value (the Night Ministry always asks to keep the costs low) but the fact that this episode almost destroyed my trust in my community. I will try to get over , but the words of encouragement will be appreciated!

Elevated Access

Did you know about this organization? I didn’t, and now I do. It’s the coolest thing!

Elevated access.

A New Life Formular

I’ve changed the way I speak about time and the lack of it. For the longest time, I used to say: “God does not give me more than 24 hours a day, even though I absolutely deserve at least 30!!!” On Friday, when I was talking to one of my fellow escorts, I came up with the follow-up: “However, God does give me 24 hours, and I am determined to use every minute of it!”

The early morning Friday shift was unusually intense; five antis were out, and there were just three of us, so we didn’t have enough bodies to escort patients and shield them. And that was the first time I was the shift lead (why am I taking on more responsibilities – don’t ask!). But while there is a need in the morning shifts, and while it’s warm enough for me to survive these morning shifts, I will be there. That’s one of the meaningful ways to use these minutes :).

And summer in Chicago continues! It was the upper 80s today! I was finally able to meet with my friend Y; we had been trying to meet since June, and had to cancel for either her or my reasons. I was sad that she didn’t have a chance to visit me in the summer, but we got a summer day in October! We went to the beach, and sat there in the lounge chairs, and I swam in the lake (she didn’t). This time, it almost didn’t happen again because she was afraid to be out while the ICE agents were terrorising the city, but then she decided she would make it, and I am glad she did.

I do not know a single person who would be happy with what’s going on in the city these days. My hairstylist came to do my hair on Friday, and with all her being “neutral” and “not wanting to talk about politics,” she couldn’t keep it to herself.

And on the ICE/Trump topic, there was another shooting, although this time not lethal, and also, Trump quietly deployed 300 National Guards, and now the whole city is mad that police is not protecting the citizen from ICE, and they also mad at the Governor, although it’s hard to tell what he could do in the current situation (except for there are multiple lawsuits filed). Also, he froze the Red Line extension money, but to be honest, I had no doubts it would happen.

Keeping fighting, and keeping doing good whenever I can.

And A Very Different Dinner

The last time I was at ODS, I spoke with one of the staff, N, who always supports my efforts to make a difference and loves my cooking, especially baked salmon. We agreed to try to make a baked salmon dinner when I am back from the conference. Although I am “not supposed” to communicate with staff directly, with the absence of a coordinator, it was my only option.

Everything worked great, and it turned out that no matter how infrequently I come to the ODS these days, everyone remembers baked salmon :). All ingredients were purchased, except that I asked to buy eight lemons, and there were only two (although big ones :))

In addition to making baked salmon and mashed potatoes (which are also an all-time hit), I brought half of the apple cake, which I baked on Sunday, and the amount of praise and the number of “thank you”-s was way above average.

That’s all I need. I am happy that I made other people happy 🙂 and received so much good vibes!

Abortion Clinics Under Attack

For the past several weeks, the early morning shifts have been added to the Washington location where I volunteer. That’s because antis started to show up very early in the morning every day of the week.

Since this location is less than tw blocks away from my office, it is relatively easy for me to come out and help; the only problem is that my early mornings are busy because I need to catch up with what had happened in the UK office by that time, and our “sync” meeting overlaps with that one, and also sometimes, I use this time to call Boris, not mentioning that I need to have breakfast at some point:). That all being said, covering this morning shift requires planning, but I am figuring this out and committing to coming at least once a week.

Last Thursday, right before I arrived, the city streets’ services painted the yellow lines by both entrances to the clinic, identifying the border of the bubble zone. I do not know how much this will help, but at least we feel supported by the local authorities

-1

Yesterday, I finally stepped down from one of my activities: The Howard/Evanstone Community Board. I was very hesitant to join this Board from the start, and the reason I ended up joining was my desire to help my local community in addition to helping the world at large :). Also, I indicated from the very beginning that my commitment will be limited, and I will only participate in the strategic initiatives group.

However, during these last two years, I was still unable to get an answer regarding our budget and measuring the effect of any of the programs that we ran. And there was a huge push to participate in the direct fundraising efforts, which I refused from the start.

When I agreed to run for the LPI Board, I promised myself that in the unlikely event I am elected, I will drop one of my existing volunteering activities, and that was the one. I am actually proud that I did it – I do not take these things lightly. Also, I didn’t want to resign by email, so I came to the quarterly meeting and talked with the CEO and explained.

It seemed as though he had expected it, and he said he completely understood. I still felt bad, but it was the right thing to do.

ODS

As I keep saying, there are more misses than hits with ODS dinners, but it was really good today. First, I met a resident who had been there for a while, and we had several in-depth conversations over the past few months. Also, I know that these conversations are important for him, and even if it’s a small part of his life, it’s a positive part :).

There were just a few people when I arrived, so at first I thought that we would have to make pizzas only with the staff helping me, but then the residents started to appear, and a couple of late arrivals expressed interest in making their own pizza. I started the oven again, and helped with the process, and it was a very good new connection.

The kids in the shelter continue to surprise me. It so often happens that some of the residents have previous experience in catering or hospitality, and often are more comfortable cooking for a large number of people than I am. Today, one of the boys told me that he worked in the pizzeria before, and I could tell by watching his professional pizza slicing. I ended up asking for his recommendations on how long to keep pizza in the oven (the ODS oven functionality has always been imperfect, to put it mildly).

LPI

LPI stands for Linux Professional Institute, and that’s yet another not-for-profit I got involved with. Last Thursday, I participated in my first Board meeting, where I was officially installed as new board member. The meeting was scheduled for two hours, and I was wondering why we need two hours for such a small adgenda. But the actual meeting lasted for two and a half hours!

All discussions were very interesting and informative, and I learned a lot (and next time I will know that it might take that long!) but my Thurday feelings were: OMG! How did I end up here, and how I have to do this for three years!

Board of Directors List

The Power Of Canvassing

Not sure whether this article is available for non-subscribers, but leaving a link just in case, and copying the article, because I couldn’t agree more! That’s how it works! And always worked, and will always work!

Continue reading “The Power Of Canvassing” →

A Video Of Last Week’s Event

That’s the showcase I attended last week: