Category: volunteering

This Week’s Events

Pizza-making at the Youth Shelter on Tuesday:

Kimberly Akimbo in the CIBC Theater on Wednesday

I stopped at Amorino before the show – I have not been there for a while, and they have new flavors!

Today: Howard and Evanston Community Center Program showcase (I am on the Community Board and miss almost half of the board meetings, so I felt like I should show up). The event was way bigger than last year’s one, and more upscale, so one more time I felt inadequate in jeans and a t-shirt, but I guess it was just me.

The event went really well; I noticed an older gentleman in the Knox vest and asked him whether he was Knox, and he sure was, so we had a very lively conversation with him and his wife. This worldwide Knox brotherhood never ceases to amaze me.

Oh, and we had Pride cookies at work!


There Was One Thing I Gave Up…

… when I moved to Rogers Park. The one volunteering activity I stopped doing was nature restoration. For the past two years, however, I thought that I might get involved in the local lae shore restoration, but I didn’t make practical steps; each time I saw a workday ad, it was time I couldn’t make it, but I know that if I “can’t make it” it means that I do not want to make it that much!

So, this Sunday, here I was, learning about new invasives (wild Morning Glory), or bindweed and new natives (silverweed), and pulling out the former, and planting the latter, and planting something in the sand for the first time!

I made connections with other nature volunteers, and learned about other workdays on other beaches, and we agreed that I would be coming to pull out the bindweed whenever I have a moment, because consistency is critical, and because we can’t use pesticides that close to the water…

I know, I know… I am hopeless 🙂

ODS Dinners

On a local front: on Wednesday, I rehabilitated my cooking skills at the ODS. Last time I was there (at the beginning of April), I tried to cook the Boudin Balls, which I had no idea about! How they should look, how they should taste – nothing! Yes, I said – ask the residents what they want, but now I know better – “want” should be a subset of what I “can.”

After my attempt was declared an experience rather than a success, we decided that next time we should make a baked salmon, but then I had to cancel my volunteer shift because I had to go to Helsinki, and I was only able to come this Wednesday.

Baked salmon was a smashing success, and homemade mashed potatoes too, but they are always a success. One of the residents asked me to put aside some boiled potatoes before I mash the rest because “he didn’t like how mashed potatoes are soggy.” I put several pieces aside, but told him: just you wait! In a little bit, he was telling everyone that I proved him wrong 🙂

I am glad that I had a couple of people who actually participated in the process, and even suggested the spices, and that I could share the love :). And I forgot to take pictures again!

On Abortion

At the PAC event on March 18, the speakers mentioned the number of out-of-state abortions performed in Illinois per year. Even before Dobbs, the numbers were high: 19K in 2022 and 87K in 2023. They didn’t have the numbers for 2024 yet, but I can only imagine!

That’s for this Saturday morning, when I was once again in escort by the FPA clinic on West Washington.

The anis are trying to blend in with the colors very similar to ours, but you can still tell them! And you can see how close to the clinic entrance they are!

One woman I was escorting to another clinic entrance said that she “didn’t expect these people to be there” and asked: Are they here every day? I said: yes, and they are not coming from other states, those are ours, “homegrown” antis. And she said: Oh, I am not from here, I am from Texas! Then we had a usual conversation about ” why are they doing this? what are they trying to achieve? that’s my choice.”

I knew that people from Texas come to Illinois to have an abortion, but that was the first time I met someone who went such a long distance to get the care they needed. And once again, it reminded me how important it is to preserve all rights and freedoms in our state.

Pizza With ODS

I’ve been to the ODS twice in the past two weeks, which is a record, especially considering everything that has happened in the past year. Both times, it was pizza-making, and I have no idea whether we will ever graduate to something more advanced, as we used to cook for years. But again, that’s progress.

There is better staff in the shelter than we have had for years, and even when the youth are not actively participating, I feel that my presence is important to them. I receive more thanks than I deserve. Last week, I said I would be able to come on Tuesday, forgetting that my meetup was scheduled for Tuesday, not for Wednesday. When I realized this mistake, I messaged the volunteer coordinator, who said it was fine. They had the kitchen ceiling painted, so it was not exactly fine. I had to bake upstairs (in the kitchen of the long-term program), so the kids were assembling the pizzas without me – all not ideal, but yay, better than nothing!

Last week was way more fun because we did everything together, but the downside was that we had unbaked dough, so we had to half-bake the crusts and then the pizzas, which took a very long time!

… I am glad I kept trying 🙂

Cookie Decorating With ODS

A week earlier, we made Gingerbread houses, and it was a surprisingly delightful activity, as I mentioned in this post. On Thursday, I brought two boxes of plain cookies to decorate, and once again, it was a hit! One of the boxes contained gluten-free cookies, which was very much appreciated by one of the residents.

As it happens these days, there is a sigh: oh, you are leaving already? when I tried to leave around 8 PM. I stayed for a little bit longer, but I had a workday ahead and a relatively long way home, even when I took Uber (which I did).

Now, I need to figure out how I can appear at the ODS more consistently, even when I travel and have other conflicts. Overall, though, I am happy with how this year ends at ODS – way better than it looked three months ago.

Gingerbread Houses With ODS

I did Gingerbread houses with my kids when they were kids, many once or twice, and I thought I was not into it. But when a staff member in the West Town Shelter suggested that I do this with the youth in ODS, I felt I should give it a try. She suggested we do it together with another volunteer. That volunteer spent a lot of time asking me whether I knew she was a jew and had nothing to do with Gingerbread houses, and I thought this whole thing was not going to work.

I purchased four houses, and I thought that there would be at max one or two residents interested and that we would end up doing houses by ourselves, but in fact, I regretted I only got four – we could use at least six if not eight, and the residents’ creativity and patience were astonishing.

Escorting

I didn’t go to the clinic escorting for over a month (my trip and then the DIno sleepover). Fortunately, it is still relatively warm, so I knew I could survive a shift. And although I could, indeed, survive the temperature, the overall situation there was horrific.

I was told that it was even worse on the previous Saturday when there were several dozen antis. Other escorts told me that the week before, not only did the police arrive, but they also helped to protect the patients from antis. The police made a “human fence” and even pulled one of the active antis away from a patient.

Still, there are way more antis than us, and they are so impudent, so shameless, so loud…

Also, the parking across the clinic is now under the new management, and they increased the parking fees almost twice and made the pricing almost invisible. When motorists exit the highway, it says “Public parking” and nothing else; there is no bar at the entrance, and the cost of parking is hidden behind a brush. Almost all patients whom we asked didn’t pay because they didn’t know they should have paid. We started telling them that they might be better off using street parking.

It was probably the last time I went escorting before the cold weather, and I do not feel good about not being there for the next three months. I just know that I won’t be able to be outside for two and a half hours, but I still feel guilty.

ODS

As I already said multiple times, things have not been working with ODS recently, and I had so many last-minute cancellations that I almost lost hope that something would ever happen. In October, the volunteer coordinator and I made another attempt to schedule things, and I sent to her a list of dates when I could come. Then there were no communications for three weeks, so the day before I was supposed to come I emailed her again asking to confirm that we were still on.

There was no response to my email. I had the cell number of the previous coordinator, but I couldn’t find the new coordinator’s phone. At some point, I had a crazy thought that I should just go there, but having what I have in my life these days, I thought I would be devastated to lose another two hours for nothing, and after some hesitations, I left home.

I was already walking home from the train station when I saw a text on my phone with a contact “maybe <her name>” (which meant that she mentioned her number in one of her emails). The message read: When are you planning to arrive?

We had a rather dramatic exchange of texts, and I frantically checked spam and trash, but there was no email found. We immediately agreed to communicate through texts in the future and agreed for me to come a week later. I felt horrible because I thought that it was all my fault, and if I was really committed to coming to the ODS, I should have either tried to find her cell number or gone to the ODS without confirmation. I felt that I was so sure (subconsciously) that it wouldn’t work again, that I was expecting this arrangement to fail. I am not sure whether I’ve explained it thoroughly, but I tried :).

Nevertheless, we agreed on November 14. I had an event I wanted to attend on that day (the Beat meeting), but I decided I had to break the curse of ODS events not happening. I confirmed on Wednesday evening by text, and then on Thursday there was another text: “There are going to be 2-4 people, how about we switch to dessert or just hanging out?”

I replied that it was OK and that I would pick desserts from Vanille. So, finally, I made it to ODS. The staff was amazing, everybody loved Vanille pastries (and it ended up being way more than four people in!). Usually, I do not like to hang out just for the sake of hanging out, but as it turned out, the youth wanted just to hang out and talk, and we all had a great time.

Now, I am very cautious, and I am not saying that it’s a success, because the last several months were very unpredictable. But one thing for sure – I do not want to give up on the Night Ministry.

The Night Ministry

On Thursday, I attended the Night Ministry Annual fundraiser. With almost everybody I knew gone, I was unsure whether I would see any familiar faces. However, I wanted to make another attempt to resume volunteering, which has been challenging to schedule for the past several months. Surprisingly, I met many people, and even those who barely knew me recognized me.

I ended up having three long and in-depth conversations about my future at the Night Ministry. Everyone mentioned that I am/has been a person who could bring young people together, and “I was the best” and it would be a shame if the Night Ministry won’t have anything for me to do. One of the opportunities was a Crib, which is a completely different volunteering pattern but might actually work for me. I guess we’ll have to see in November.

Overall, I feel hopeful. For the past several months, there have been many times when I thought that I just needed to give up that part of my life, but then I felt a huge void and could not be a whole person without the Night Ministry, so I kept trying.